Parker: I’m going to knock Joshua cold

By Boxing News - 01/13/2018 - Comments

Image: Parker: I’m going to knock Joshua cold

By Scott Gilfoid: WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) has flown to London, England in anticipation of him signing for his unification fight against WBA/WBC champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) for their fight on March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

Parker says he’s ready to knock Joshua out cold when he gets him inside the ring. Parker says he sees Joshua as being overly sensitive about being criticized. He’s noticed that Joshua does not take being criticized well for some reason. Whatever the case, Parker plans on knocking out Joshua on the night when he gets inside the ring with him.

The 26-year-old Parker has been critical of Joshua’s “glass chin” as well as his “robotic” style of fighting, and he’s let him know about it. Joshua has been hurt in 3 of his fights as a pro against Carlos Takam, Wladimir Klitschko and Dillian Whyte. Parker arguably hits harder than Takam and Whyte. If Parker can connect with his hard shots to the head of Joshua, he might KO him on the night.

The Joshua-Parker fight could be finalized by the end of the weekend. Parker will be starting his training camp shortly after that in the U.S. He plans on training for 10 weeks to get ready for Joshua. Parker’s trainer Kevin Barry plans on having him come in lighter for the fight. It’ll help with his mobility. Joshua might come in lighter as well if he can take the muscle weight off.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said he was going to come in lighter for his last fight against Carlos Takam. Instead, Joshua weighed in at a career high of 254 pounds, and looked sluggish and slow the entire fight. Joshua might not be able to take the muscle off even if he wants to at this point in his career. If that’s the case, it’ll hard for Joshua to deal with the movement of Parker on March 31.

The fight will give Parker his biggest payday of his career and set him up for life monetarily. It’s a great deal for Parker. He could make as much as $12 million for the Joshua fight. Even if Parker doesn’t win, he’s still going to come out of the fight in great shape. Parker is the underdog in the fight. If he beats Joshua, he’ll make a massive amount of money in the rematch. Joshua isn’t going to shy away from fighting Parker a second time. He’s going to look to avenge the loss.

Parker might need to take matters into his own hands if he wants to ensure he gets the win on March 31. That might mean that Parker will need a knockout of Joshua for him to get the victory, as the fight taking place in the UK. If the rounds are close, they might go to the home fighter Joshua. The good thing that Parker has going for him in this fight is his punching power, mobility and stamina. Joshua never did have great stamina, but he’s ruined his conditioning with his habit of weight lifting.

“If he has any issues with what has been happening in the media and that sort of stuff, that’s up to him,” said Parker to stuff.co.nz. ”He should be able to accept the different challenges in boxing in terms of physical training, how people talk and what people say. So, if he’s angry, so be it. He can get in the ring and try and bash me around. I’m going there to knock him out cold,” said Parker.

Obviously, Joshua isn’t handling the criticism from Parker, and he’s probably going to have issues with it all during the build-up to their March 31 fight. Parker can either go easy on Joshua by holding back with his true thoughts about him or he can continue to let him have it full bore. If the 28-year-old Joshua is going to try and take it out on Parker inside the ring during the fight, he could wind up sorry for it, as he doesn’t have the stamina to fight hard for more than a minute or two without gassing out for many rounds.

Most fighters are able to get their second wind within a round, but not Joshua. When he gasses out, he stayed tired for 3 entire rounds. That’s been his habit for the last 3 years, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. The fact is, Joshua is built for only short duration hard fighting. He’s got a bodybuilder’s physique, and those types of fighters aren’t capable of fighting hard for any length of time without needing rest breaks. As such, if Joshua gets angry and Parker for his trash talking and tries to take it out on him inside the ring, he could wind up sorry for it later. It would be better for Joshua to let Parker say what he wants to say without feeling like he needs to control him. Parker should be able to speak his mind without him needing to take it easy on Joshua. If Joshua can’t handle criticism, then he probably doesn’t belong as a belt holder, because it goes with the territory.