By Jim Dower: 23-year-old heavyweight contender Joseph Parker (16-0, 14 KOs) recorded his 5th consecutive knockout in stopping 45-year-old Kali Meehan (42-6, 32 KOs) in the 3rd round on Thursday night at The Trust Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.
Parker dropped the 6’5” Meehan with a single right hand to the head in the 3rd round. The referee Ferlin Marsh halted the fight just as the badly hurt Meehan was getting up off the canvas. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:00 of the 3rd. Just as the referee was stopping the fight, Meehan’s corner threw in the towel.
Meehan took a lot of punishment in the 3rd round by Parker when he retreated to the ropes. This allowed Parker to tee off with a lot of heavy shots with both hands.
In the 2nd round, Meehan was pummeled in the first and the last part of the round by Parker, who was loading up on his shots instead of just placing them. Parker’s trainer told him in between rounds that he needed to stop loading up on his punches, but the information looked like it went in one ear and out the other because he continued to load up on his shots in the 3rd round just as he had in the first two rounds.
Meehan looked like he was ready to go down late in the 2nd round. He lost his footing for a second after absorbing a big right hand to the head, but he steadied himself and stayed on his feet.
At the end of the round, Meehan walked wearily back to his corner and looked like he was in bad shape. He had swelling around both eyes and he didn’t look like he was fit to come out for the 3rd. But the fight was allowed to continue, and he didn’t make it through the round.
“Yes, I believe it is (his biggest scalp) at this stage of my career and with the fights that he’s had in his career,” said Parker via m.nzherald.co.nz. “I landed some big shots and Kali’s a warrior. He came prepared and some of the punches I threw in the first round usually knocks out people and hurts them.”
Parker showed good punching power in the fight, and an excellent ability to finish Meehan. However, Parker’s defense was poor throughout the contest. Meehan was able to nail him with a lot of big shots to the head. If it was a better heavyweight with excellent punching power, I don’t know that Parker would have won the fight. He seems to be mainly capable of only fighting at medium to close distance for some reason. That’s bad news for Parker when he eventually gets inside the ring with a tall heavyweight like Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte and Kubrat Pulev. Those guys all know how to fight on the outside, and they’ll be sure to take advantage of Parker’s inability to fight at a distance.
Parker will be fighting next on December 5th against an opponent still to be determined at the Claudelands Arena, Hamilton.
In other action on the card, welterweight contender Jeff Horn (12-0, 8 KOs) stayed unbeaten in defeating Alfredo Rodolfo Blanco (15-4, 8 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision.
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