By Scott Gilfoid: WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (22-0, 18 Jos) weighed in at 245 ¾ pounds at Friday’s weight for his first title defense against little known substitute opponent Razvan Cojanu (16-2, 9 KOs) this Saturday night at the Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. Parker’s hulking 6’7 ½” opponent Cojanu weighed in at a monstrous 274 ¾ pounds at Friday’s weigh-in. So we’re talking 29 lbs. that Cojanu will have over the 6’4” Parker.
Fortunately for Parker, he’s not facing a Klitschko-like talent in Cojanu. This is a much simpler fighter, who already been beaten twice as a pro by journeyman Alvaro Morales (5-9-5) and Donovan Dennis (12-3). I don’t know exactly by the World Boxing Organization has Cojanu rated in their top 15 in their ratings, because based on his record, he would be more at home with a bottom 100 ranking or even lower.
It’s sometimes very, very hard to understand the WBO’s ratings for different fighters. I notice they tend to have a lot of mediocre fighters in the top 15. Even in their top 5, I see the WBO ranking a lot of arguably lesser talents. For example, the WBO currently has the unproven Hughie Fury rated No.1. Now I’m sure Hughie is a nice guy and all, but what on earth has he done to be rated No.1 by the WBO?
Hughie hasn’t fought in over a year since April 2016, and he struggled badly in beating Fred Kassi in winning a 7th round technical decision. The way that fight ended left a lot of clouds around it due to Kassi having taken over the fight, which ended with Hughie suffering a cut that resulted in the fight going to the scorecards. Had the fight continued, Kassi would have had an excellent chance of knocking out Hughie because he was exhausted. So now the WBO has another odd ranking by them putting the 31-year-old Cojanu at No.14.
Many boxing fans are predicting a 1st round knockout for Parker on Saturday against the over-matched and unheralded Cojanu. I disagree with that opinion. Yeah, I definitely think Parker can knockout Cojanu in the 1st if he wanted to, but I see him having mercy on him and letting the fight go 6 or 7 rounds before he puts him out of his misery. You have to remember that Cojanu reportedly was one of Parker’s sparring partners in the past.
Parker strikes me as being kind. I don’t think he’s going to wipe out an old sparring partner in the 1st round. I think Parker will stay in 1st gear through much of the fight, and not press the issue against the hapless Cojanu to try for an early knockout. However, I don’t think it’s good for Parker to get in the habit of fighting at a slow glacial pace in his fights, because he’s going to need to be able to turn it on when he eventually faces someone like IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who likes to bum rush his opponents.
If Parker, 25, isn’t ready to fight at a fast pace against someone like Joshua, he could get steamrollered by him. That’s why it’s best for Parker to fight at a fast pace in his fights and not show mercy. Of course, it’s always best to fight the talents instead of bottom feeders in boxing. Picking from the bottom of the rankings isn’t going to improve Parker’s game any. It’s just going to give him a lot of bad habits that could work against him when he eventually steps it up against a talented fighter.
The 22-year-old Hughie may still end up getting a title shot against Parker in the near future once his bad back gets better. The WBO likely won’t be dropping him from his current No.1 spot in their rankings. This means we could see Parker defending against the 6’6” Hughie as early as next year. I don’t know if Parker will still be the WBO champion by then, but someone will have to defend against Hughie. It would be great news for Hughie if Joshua has captured the WBO title by then, because he can make a lot of nice cash fighting him rather than Parker.
Parker’s next fight after the Cojanu title defense could very well be in the UK against either Joshua or heavyweight upstart Tony Bellew. Both fighters are promoted by Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn, and he’s very interested in matching Joshua or Bellew against the unbeaten Parker. It would mean that Parker would have to travel outside of the safe confines of New Zealand to fight in hostile territory in the UK, but the money that Parker can make fighting over there will make the trip well worth it.
Bellew would be a nice payday for Parker. I think that would be the better fight for Parker to take first BEFORE he faces Joshua. It would help make Parker a bigger name in the UK if he wipes out Bellew first in what would be little more than a glorified tune-up. There would be a lot of noise behind a Parker-Bellew fight, because Bellew likes to open his yap a lot, but it would be an easy fight for Parker. Bellew isn’t a big puncher at heavyweight, as we saw in his recent fight against injured David Haye.
Bellew has no real experience at heavyweight. You can’t count Bellew’s recent win over Haye as real experience at heavyweight, because Haye was dragging his BADLY injured right leg around for the last 5 rounds of the fight after he tore his right Achilles in the 6th. It’s pretty much academic that Haye would have beaten Bellew if not for the injury. Haye was dominating the fight behind a powerful jab that he kept catching Bellew with again and again. Parker would have too much power for Bellew. I can see that one ending badly for Bellew.
“We love fighting in New Zealand; we love the support but it’s going to be our farewell fight and we’re going to make it a good one,” said Parker to stuff.co.nz. “This is probably our last fight in New Zealand for a long time so we want to say goodbye.”
Parker can fight in the UK and the U.S to become a star. If he can take Bellew and Joshua’s scalps in consecutive fights, it would be huge for him. Parker would be like a king. He’s obviously got a lot to work with after the way that Wladimir Klitschko got the better of Joshua through most of their fight last Saturday night. Parker can use the Klitschko blueprint to beat Joshua. The only thing that Parker needs to improve on is having more of the killer instinct in finishing Joshua off after he has him hurt and gassed out.
Parker can’t back off and turn the fight into a jabbing contest after he has Joshua fighting on fumes in the 6th round. That was a dumb mistake Wladimir made. A lot of boxing fans wonder what on earth Wladimir was thinking. He fought like he had no sense at all. It was very peculiar for an experienced fighter like Wladimir to let Joshua hang around after was staggering in the 6th and totally exhausted.
If Parker can knockout Joshua, it would mean at least 1 big money rematch for him. I doubt that Eddie Hearn would chance it with a third Joshua-Parker fight if his golden goose Joshua loses the rematch. That would be a career-ender for Joshua if Parker were to knock him out in 3 straight fights. As such, the most I can see Parker getting is 2 fights against Joshua.