Results from New Zealand
Joseph Parker KO 3 Alexander Dimitrenko
Junior Fa W 6 Alapati A’asa
Izu Ugonoh TKO 2 Gregory Tony
Brown Buttabean W 4 Clarence Tillman III
John Parker w 4 Ratu Sailosi Dawai
By Eric Baldwin: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Joseph Parker (20-0, 17 KOs) weighed in at a solid 240 ¼ pounds on Friday at his weigh-in for his fight on Saturday night against Alexander Dimitrenko (38-2, 24 KOs) for their 12 round fight on Saturday night at the Vodafone Events Centre, in Manukau City, New Zealand.
Dimitrenko weighed in at 254 pounds. This is the same weight the 6’7” Dimitrenko weighed in at for his last fight against Drazan Janjanin last January. Dimitrenko won that fight by an eight round unanimous decision.
Parker, 24, isn’t happy about some of the comments Dimitrenko has made in recent weeks, and he wants to get him inside the ring so he can knock him out. Parker needs to get the 34-year-old Dimitrenko out of the way so that he can potentially fight International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17 KOs) on November 26 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Wladimir Klitschko may end up being the guy that Joshua fights on November 26 if the WBA/WBO strip Tyson Fury of his titles. Wladimir wants to fight for those belts, as he was supposed to fight Fury on October 29, but he pulled out of the fight last week. If Parker can’t get the Joshua fight, then he could wind up facing David Price on the Joshua-Klitschko card on November 26 or whenever they fight each other.
“When I’m in the ring and it’s time for action, the dangerous Joe comes out and it’s time to take care of business and try my best to knock people out,” said Parker to skysports.com. “I believe I am a nice guy, I like to treat everyone with respect, show everyone the nice side of me. But when I’m in the ring and it’s time for action, and the bell goes, the dangerous Joe comes out and it’s time to take care of business and try my best to knock people out.”
If nothing else, the Dimitrenko fight will give boxing fans a chance to see how well Parker handles a really tall heavyweight with height and reach over him. Parker, 6’4”, is going to need to deal with the 6’6” Joshua’s two inch height and six inch reach advantage. The reach is going to be the critical factor for Parker to try and overcome against Joshua, because he’s not going to be able to stay on the outside and jab or post shot with him. However, Parker did a good job against Carlo Takam, who had a four inch reach advantage over him and Kali Meehan, who had a five inch advantage in reach.
Those guys didn’t have Joshua’s power going for them though. It was easier for Parker to get in punching range against those fighters because there wasn’t the risk of him running into something big when he was coming in. Dimitrenko will be good practice for Parker to try out different things that he can use against Joshua when he gets inside the ring with him at some point in the future.
Dimitrenko isn’t much of a threat to Parker despite having a three inch height and seven inch reach advantage. Dimitrenko does a poor job of using his height to his advantage for some reason. Dimitrenko tends cover up when his opponents get in punching range. He never chose to follow the example of the 6’6” Wladimir to grab his opponents in a clinch each time they got near him. Dimitrenko covers up like a sparring partner, and winds up getting belted. It hasn’t been a problem for Dimitrenko in his last six fights because he stopped facing good opposition after his bad experience against Kubrat Pulev in 2012.
“I believe they will be following our next fight and then hopefully if everything goes well, we’ll see what happens, and hopefully we’ll fight one of them in the near future,” said Parker about David Price and Joshua.
Joshua and Price will obviously be scouting Parker to look for weaknesses that they can exploit when/if they get him inside the ring. Joshua could have a tough fight against Wladimir Klitschko on November 26 if he elects not to fight Parker next. There’s no telling what will happen in that fight. Joshua should win, but the fight will need to play out for the boxing world to find out for sure. Price has a fight this Saturday night against 42-year-old journeyman Ivica Perkovic that he should win without any problems.
Parker is going to be looking to bomb Dimitrenko out quickly tomorrow night. For Parker to keep himself in line for the Joshua fight on November 26, he must use his boxing skills to avoid getting hit a lot by Dimitrenko, because if he suffers a cut or some other kind of injury in the fight, then that will automatically remove him as a candidate for Joshua.
Parker can elect to try and KO Dimitrenko as fast as possible to minimize the amount of times he gets hit in the fight, or he can stay to the outside and box him for 12 rounds to win an easy decision. With Dimitrenko’s long reach, Parker is going to be in range all the time when he’s on the outside.
