Joshua vs. Parker on Showtime on Mar.31

By Boxing News - 02/05/2018 - Comments

Image: Joshua vs. Parker on Showtime on Mar.31

By Tim Royner: Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker heavyweight unification will be televised in the U.S by Showtime Sports on March 31. It’s good news for the American fans that are interested in seeing IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) face WBO champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) in a battle of unbeaten champions at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. 80,000 fans will be in attendance to see the fight live at the Principality Stadium.

Joshua is a highly popular heavyweight from the UK. He captured a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics for Britain. Joshua was fast tracked as a pro by his promoter Eddie Hearn by luring vulnerable IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin to the UK to fight Joshua, who was 15-0 at the time at the O2 Arena in London, England. Some boxing fans at the time felt that Hearn had bought the IBF title due to him having the deep enough pockets to get the vulnerable champion Martin to agree to come to the UK to fight Joshua. Martin would have likely lost to a lot of the top heavyweights in the division, but their promoters didn’t make the big money offer to get fight their contenders. Hearn came up with the money to get Joshua the fight, so he won the IBF belt against a middle of the road champion in Martin.

Hearn is hoping to build Joshua into a star in the U.S. With Joshua’s fights being televised on Showtime to the American boxing fans, Hearn hopes to make him a household name. It might take a long time for that to happen if it ever does. If Joshua gets past Parker, there’s a chance he’ll face WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder in the summer. If not Wilder, then there’s a chance Joshua could face Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller or Dillian Whyte in the summer. It’s one of those 3 heavyweights that Joshua will be tangling with. The Parker fight is to help make the Miller or Wilder fights bigger. Miller, 29, would be the perfect fight to get the U.S boxing fans excited about seeing a Joshua-Wilder fight later this year.

Joshua looked great in his first 18 fights as a pro, but since his fight with Wladimir Klitschko, he’s shown chin and stamina problems. If the 26-year-old Parker can capitalize on that, he’ll likely knock Joshua out and put a damper on his Showtime fight in front of the U.S audiences.

”Anthony Joshua is a global superstar, and we’re proud to present his sixth and perhaps most challenging, world title fight to the U.S. audience,” Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza said. ”Joshua vs. Parker will be the 12th heavyweight world championship match on SHOWTIME since Deontay Wilder won his title in 2015, an undisputed industry-leading offering in boxing’s preeminent division.”

I don’t think this is the most challenging fight for Joshua. It depends on how well Parker can handle the early rounds. That’s when Joshua is at his best. The heavily muscled Joshua fades quickly when he’s forced to fight at a fast pace. The toughest opponent Joshua has had up to this point is 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, who should have beaten him last April if not for letting him off the hook after knocking him down in round 6. It’s hard to picture Parker doing a better job than Wladimir did against Joshua.

It’s unknown which if any undercard fights Showtime will be televising on the Joshua-Parker card. As of now, there’s only the heavyweight clash between former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin (33-1, 23 KOs) facing David Price (22-4, 18 KOs). This fight might be the co-feature to the main event. Povetkin vs. Price is one of those fights where it wouldn’t be a good idea to blink or take a trip to the refrigerator for some refreshments during the action, because you might miss the ending. Price, 34, is not expected to last long. That might be one of the reasons why the 38-year-old Povetkin quickly agreed to take the fight. Povetkin has already earned a title shot against Joshua as the World Boxing Association mandatory challenger. Povetkin doesn’t have to take this fight to get a title shot against AJ, but he wanted to fight on the card to help get the British boxing fans excited about a fight between him and Joshua later this year. Price, 6’8”, can take Povetkin’s title shot away from him if he pulls off an upset.

Joshua brings a lot of boxing fans to see him fight in the UK. His promoter Hearn believes that he’s going to carry the heavyweight division for the next 10 years. It doesn’t look like that. Joshua brings drama to his fights because you don’t know if he’s going to win or gas out and get stopped. Joshua will be lucky if he makes it another year as the unified champion. He doesn’t have the beard, stamina or the right physique to be a long-lasting champion. Hearn will position Joshua to wherever he sees an opportunity for him to win another title if he loses his belts this year. Hearn is pretty clever that way.