By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated Joseph Parker (18-0, 16 KOs) will be keeping a close eye on next month’s title fight between IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin and Anthony Joshua at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The 24-year-old Parker wants to fight the winner of that contest, and he’s keen at getting the chance to fight the 6’6” Joshua.
Parker isn’t saying why he’s interested in fighting Joshua, but it could be he’s spotted how slow of hand, how robotic and how over-muscled Joshua is and he sees weakness. We just saw Joshua exposed in his last fight against Dillian Whyte in which Joshua was staggered in the 2nd round, and looking like he was laboring. Who knows?
If not for Whyte suffering a shoulder injury to his primary weapon, his left hand, we might have seen Joshua getting blasted out in that round. I can’t see the 24-year-old Parker hurting a shoulder in the round that he staggers Joshua.
I mean, what are the odds of that happening? Parker is young enough and in shape enough not to come up with a bad injury while in the process of staggering Joshua. Parker also has good enough stamina to where he won’t be gassing after two rounds like Dillian Whyte was in the Joshua fight. That was unbelievable. I can’t remember the last time I saw a heavyweight gas after just two rounds.
“I will be watching very closely and I’ll be seeing how both fighters go,” said Parker to skysports.com about the Martin-Joshua fight on 4/9. “I’m excited to see this fight. It’s a big step for Joshua to step up and take on Martin, but I think Joshua has got what it takes to become a champion and Martin will come prepared as well – he doesn’t want to lose his title. It’s 50-50, but it depends on who wants it more. Whoever trains the hardest will win the fight.”
I totally agree with you, Mr. Parker. Yes, it is true, the fight is a 50-50 one between Joshua and Martin. Joshua is so easy to hit it’s not even funny, and he’s got terrible habits in the ring. With the way that Joshua likes to bum rush all of his opponents, he’s just asking for trouble. I can understand Joshua bum rushing his opponents if he had explosive power like Deontay Wilder or the combination of speed and power that we used to see from Mike Tyson ages ago, but Joshua doesn’t have any of those things going for him. He’s got slow hands, moderate power, and not much of a jab.
Joshua just got spoiled after turning pro with the fodder that his promoter Eddie Hearn was feeding him. Instead of Hearn putting Joshua in with top tier opposition like many promoters do when they have an Olympic gold medalist in their stables, Hearn fed Joshua dreadful opposition in his first 14 fights.
Joshua didn’t need to have to learn how to use any technique or special tactics for his mismatches. All he needed to do was charge forward and throw his arm punches until his opponents would hit the canvas or the referee would stop the fight. I saw more than a few of Joshua’s fights halted after he would throw a flurry of arm shots against some horrible opponent that didn’t look like he had a clue how to fight.
Parker has a tough fight ahead of him against #5 IBF Carlos Takam in May in an IBF title eliminator. If Parker wins that fight, then he’ll be in position to face the winner of the Martin vs. Joshua fight at some point. Parker will still likely need to wait until 2017 before he gets a crack at the title, because the winner of the Martin-Joshua fight will have two voluntary defenses available to them. As such, they’re probably not going to face a good opponent for the remainder of the year.
“If they both win – Joshua in April and Parker in May – I think it’s inevitable they will fight,” said trainer Kevin Barry to skysports.com. “It would be a fight between the two best prospects in the division. There is a chance we may take a fight in the UK towards the end of this year. Who knows?”
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