Joshua has until January 9 to face Joseph Parker

By Boxing News - 06/30/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) has less than five months to make his final voluntary defense before needing to negotiate a fight against his IBF mandatory challenger 24-year-old Joseph Parker (19-0, 16 KOs). Joshua’s defense against Parker is due by January 9, 2017. If he doesn’t defend it against him by that point, then he’ll likely be stripped of his title by the International Boxing Federation. Parker is going to be a tough out for Joshua, because unlike many of the opponents that the British heavyweight has been matched against since he turned pro, Parker will fight back. He’s not just going to stand there like a human punching bag with arms for 12 rounds hoping that Joshua gets tired at some point of throwing punches.

Joshua destroyed #13 IBF Dominic Breazeale (17-1, 15 KOs) by a 7th round knockout last Saturday night in Joshua’s first optional defense of his title at the O2 Arena in London, England. Breazeale was chosen by Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn in part due to him being unbeaten, a 2012 U.S Olympian, and because Joshua recently signed a multi-fight contract with U.S cable network Showtime.

Having Joshua fight an American obviously would play better for the U.S fans than if he’d faced a foreign fighter. Breazeale isn’t well known in the U.S though, so it’s hard to see whether Hearn, Joshua and Showtime came out ahead. In hindsight, Showtime should have vetoed the decision for Joshua fighting Breazeale, because it was a bad one the moment the contract was signed for the fight. Breazeale had struggled against journeyman Fred Kassi last year in winning a controversial decision over him. Joshua and Showtime might as well have had Kassi as his opponent rather than Breazeale, because Kassi would have likely fought a heck of a lot better than what we saw from Breazeale. It’s unclear whether Showtime had/has veto power to stop some of the fights that Hearn puts together for Joshua. If Showtime can’t stop the fights, then they should at least be able to pick and choose which fights they televise of Joshua to the American public, so that the fans get to see more competitive match-ups than what was seen in the Joshua-Breazeale fight.

Joshua needs to defend his IBF title by November 8, according to Dan Rafael. Joshua could fight the hard hitting Parker if he wanted to, but his promoter Eddie Hearn likes the idea of him getting in another voluntary defense. You can understand why if you’ve seen the 6’4” Parker fight before, because he’s a very dangerous heavyweight that brings a lot of the same qualities that Joshua brings to the table in his fights.

Parker has a fight next month on July 21 against Solomon Haumono (24-2-2, 21 KOs) in a tune-up in New Zealand. Parker will probably get in another two more fights before he eventually faces Joshua next year in the first three months of 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO0Cm329zcs

Parker isn’t quite as tall as the 6’6” Joshua, and he’s roughly 9 to 10 pounds lither than him at 234lbs. One name that Joshua could be facing next for his second voluntary defense is Dillian Whyte (17-1, 14 KOs). Joshua fought Whyte last December and stopped him in the 7th round in a thrilling fight at the O2 Arena in London, England. Whyte went into the match with an injured left shoulder. He’s since had surgery on the injured shoulder to repair the problem.

Last Saturday night, Whyte returned to the ring for the first time in six months and ended up stopping Ivica Bacurin in the 6th round of a scheduled eight round bout. However, Whyte rarely used his surgically repaired left shoulder in the bout, and it leaves one to question whether his shoulder will ever be the same again. If Joshua is going to fight Whyte again, it would the best time for him to fight him now before his left shoulder regains the strength it once had. If Whyte never does regain the strength that he had, then that would be unfortunate because he had a promising career before the injury. Whyte’s main weapon is his left hand. If you saw Whyte last Saturday against Bacurin, he was one-armed fighter that threw only power shots with his right hand and jabs with his left Whyte’s right hand isn’t strong enough for him to rely on that arm.