By Scott Gilfoid: Anthony Joshua doesn’t want to let the media know how much he’s weighing for his fight against Joseph Parker. Joshua has been taking weight off during this training camp to come in lighter than the 254 pounds that he weighed for his last title defense against Carlos Takam on October 28.
IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Joshua (20-0, 20 Kos) squares off against WBO champion Parker on March 31 on Sky Box Office at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Parker, who usually weighs in the 245 lb. region for his fights, has reduced his weight as well, and he looks well below that weight. We could see Parker weighing from 230 to 234 for the Joshua fight.
Parker weighed 234 lbs. for his fight two years ago against Takam in 2016, and he used a great deal of movement in that fight. Takam couldn’t get to Parker most of the time, and the contest became a tactical affair instead of a war like most boxing fans thought it would be. Joshua is no faster on his feet than Takam, and the only way he’s going to be able to force Parker into a brawl is if he decides that’s what he wants to do.
Joshua was supposedly going to be coming in lighter for that fight than the 250 lbs. that he’d weighed in his previous fight against Wladimir Klitschko on April 29 at Wembley Stadium. Joshua surprised boxing fans by coming in heavier for that fight. If the fans had their eyes opened in the weeks before the Takam fight, they would have seen that Joshua looked huge and there was no way he was going to come into that fight lighter than what he’d weighed for the Klitschko affair. This time, Joshua does look lighter for his unification fight against the 26-year-old Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) on March 31, and he might even be as low as 240 lbs. The way Joshua looks now, his body strange looks strange. His head, which had looked too small for his body when he weighed in the 250s, now looks too big for his body. That suggests that he might be in the 230s. That would be surprising.
“I’m not going to say because, last time I said that, I came in at my career-heaviest,” Joshua said to skysports.com. ”Whether I’m bigger than I was for Takam, or lighter than I was for Dominic Breazeale, I will make sure I am victorious.”
Joshua seems to be saying that he’s going to win each time he fights no matter what he weighs, and I don’t agree with that. Joshua is human after all, and if he sticks around the sport long enough, he will lose. He’s not going to be another Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Rocky Marciano and finish his career undefeated. Those guys likely would have lost had they fought better opposition during their respective careers.
Joshua’s weight is important whether he wants to admit it or not. He doesn’t have a good enough cardiovascular system for him to be routinely fighting in the 250s. Some fighters in the past did. Lennox Lewis was able to fight at a high level while weighing in the 250s and the same with George Foreman in his comeback. Joshua can’t do that, because he gasses out. What we don’t know is if Joshua can fight at a fast pace while weighing in the 240s. The way Joshua gassed out against Dillian Whyte in their fight in 2015. I don’t think he can fight hard at 245. Joshua gassed out in 2 rounds against Whyte. What was alarming about that fight was the fact that Joshua stayed tired until the 6th. He was gassed out from rounds 2 to 6. That should have sent alarm bells going off in the minds of Joshua’s trainers, because anyone with any kind of sense would see that and know that his cardiovascular system can’t handle him weighing 245. What should have been done by Joshua’s trainers is for them go look bad at old film of his previous fights at lower weights for them to get a good gauge at what weight he should have been fighting at. If Joshua’s trainers had any control over his weight, they should have dropped him back down to 230 lbs. or better yet 225. Joshua was at his best when he was fighting at 225.
In looking at Joshua when he weighed 220 lbs. for his amateur fight against Dillian Whyte in 2009, he looked like a completely different fighter. Joshua had speed, and he could throw tons of shots without showing any signs of gasping for breath. Joshua should have taken a page out of Deontay Wilder’s playbook a long time ago and dropped his weight back to the 220s, because his power would be the same but his stamina and speed would be so much better. Power comes from a fighters’ frame, not from bulky muscles. That’s why Deontay hits so hard. He’s 6’7”, and he uses his frame to generate massive power.
Hearn hasn’t been too vocal lately about Joshua’s weight for the Parker fight, so that’s good news. I don’t think the boxing fans would believe what Hearn says pertaining to Joshua’s weight after the last time the two fought each other. Hearn had been saying before the Joshua-Takam fight that he would come into the match lower than usual. When Joshua came in at a career high 254 pounds, the boxing fans looked at Hearn and realized that he’d been giving them fake news.
“I’m not going to jinx it,” Joshua said about his weight. “I think stretching is important. Because I’m already a big guy I can tense up, naturally. I tend to do a lot more stretching now, to keep my body loose. I’m not snacking as much, which is something heavyweights can do,” Joshua said.
What Joshua isn’t talking about is his habit of lifting lots of weights. He wasn’t looking like a bodybuilder because he’s been snacking the last four years. Joshua has been driving some serious iron to get his weight up from 225lbs. to 254 in just 4 years. Putting on 30 lbs. of pure muscle naturally is not easy to do, especially in a short period of time. Weight lifters can bulk up if they lift and eat a lot, but much of the time they end up looking chunky and no necessarily solid. Joshua has put on muscle like a bodybuilder, and it’s not all that surprising that he’s become slow, muscle-bound and easy to hit.