Tyson Fury wasn’t impressed with Joshua-Parker fight

By Boxing News - 04/01/2018 - Comments

Image: Tyson Fury wasn't impressed with Joshua-Parker fight

By Marcus Richardson: Tyson Fury didn’t see anything special about Anthony Joshua with his 12 round unanimous decision win over WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker last Saturday night in Cardiff, Wales.

Fury says Parker and Joshua looked like a couple of bums, who weren’t even good enough to take a job as one of his sparring partners.

Fury, 29, is still planning on making his comeback to boxing after nearly 3 years out of the ring. He’ll be soon targeting Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) to go after his IBF, WBA and WBO titles that were at one time in his possession.

“Just watching these two and I tell you they’re a pair of wooden-tops,” Fury said on his Twitter. “They’re not even good enough to be my sparring partners, the pair of them. They’re a pair of bums. No panache, no flair, no show. Waste of money,” Fury said.

There’s no argument from the boxing public that Joshua and Parker (24-1, 18 KOs) were both awful last Saturday night with their boring 12 round chess-match at the Principality Stadium. Joshua got the nod by the three judges by the wide scores 118-110, 118-110 and 119-109. The scores and the poor job the referee did were talked about more afterwards than the actual fight, which tells you a lot about how boring the fight was.

The scoring by the judges was extremely generous to Joshua, who fought well enough to deserve the win, but by the score of 116-112. There were easily 4 to 5 rounds that Parker should have been given but wasn’t by the three judges – Steve Gray, Ian Scott and Steve Weinsfield – that were assigned to the fight. The referee Giuseppe Quartarone was just plain awful the way he prevented in fighting and forced the contest to be conducted at long range, which gave Joshua all the advantages.

”There’s only one Tyson Fury for a reason,” Fury said. ”This is Mac year 2018, they’re a pack of bums. Parker is what Parker is – he’s a young lad trying. AJ’s a wooden-top – he ain’t no superstar, I am the man. I could beat AJ in my comeback – triple up the jab, swing the right hand up, downstairs, upstairs, ain’t good enough to be my sparring partner. That was a s**t fight, a s**t performance by both fighters.”

The boxing world wasn’t impressed with Joshua and Parker last night, and not just Fury. Anyone that saw the fight was troubled at how bad Joshua looked, especially given the fact that he’s being hyped as the best heavyweight in the division right now. If Joshua is the best fighter in the weight class, it shows you how weak this era is. That’s the way it is in the heavyweight division.

It’s been heading downwards since Mike Tyson’s career deteriorated. The guys that replaced Tyson were flawed fighters like Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali Klitschko and now Joshua. Of those fighters, Joshua looks to be the worst. The talent in the heavyweight division has withered away to the point where a bodybuilder is considered the best fighter in the weight class.

Fury will get a chance to prove whether he has the talent to beat Joshua when he eventually makes his comeback and gets a few fights under his belt. The Joshua vs. Fury fight will likely take place in 2019, if both guys are still winning and looking good. Fury has been out of the ring for so long that he might not have enough of his boxing skills and conditioning intact for him to beat AJ.

If Fury does beat Joshua, it’ll be a huge upset, because a lot of fans believe Fury will never be the same again. Fury needs to get back in the ring already and get his career going once again, because he’s been out of the ring for too long as it is. Fury is talking a lot, but he’s not fighting.

“Listen AJ, please don’t fight Wilder because he’ll knock you spark out and take my £50 million,” Fury said. “Let me break you.”

Well, you can believe that once Fury has one win under his belt in his comeback, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing will immediately be looking to setup the fight between him and AJ. Hearn seems to want to make the Joshua-Fury fight before he makes the Joshua vs. Wilder unification match, and that’s perfectly understandable from his point of view. Hearn is Joshua’s promoter and he must look out for his welfare. Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) is a BIG threat to Joshua, whether he wants to admit it or not, and he wants to make sure he keeps AJ making loads of money for as long as possible.

Wilder might look a little awkward at times, but he’s got a cannon for a right hand. That cannon can go off at any time. If Wilder connects with one of his right hands on the chin of Joshua, he could knock him clean out. The thing with Wilder, it looks so effortless when he throws a hard right. It doesn’t even look like he’s putting a lot of power in his shots. His frame creates tons of power, and there aren’t too many fighters that can handle that kind of power for any length of time. I’d say no one can. There’s not a fighter that can handle that kind of brute strength from Wilder. If he lands cleanly, Joshua will be counting stars.

Hearn is likely going to match Joshua in his next three fights in this order:

1. Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller – in August

2. Alexander Povetkin – in November or December

3. Tyson Fury – in April 2019

4. Deontay Wilder – in August 2019

5. Dillian Whyte

If Fury chooses not to accept a fight with Joshua in early 2019, then his promoter Hearn will likely match AJ against Dillian Whyte. Hearn promotes Whyte, so it makes it a very easy fight for him to make. There’s a very good chance that Hearn won’t let Wilder get a shot against Joshua until he’s exhausted all the viable fights, including potential rematches against the above fighters.