By Allan Fox: WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker says he’s going to surprise everyone this Saturday night by beating IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in their unification fight. Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) feels that the boxing fans, odds-makers and the writers are judging him on his last two fights against Hughie Fury and Razvan Cojanu.
Parker, 26, won both of those fights, but he failed to impress the fans. Both were one-sided affairs, Parker looked confused at times with the things those two fighters were doing inside the ring.
Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) doesn’t appear to be worried at all about Parker. When asked is Parker his most dangerous challenge in 2018, Joshua said, ”No. Wilder.”
Joshua seems to have WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder on his mind despite his promoter Eddie Hearn telling the boxing media that it’s an easy fight for him technically. Joshua doesn’t seem to believe the things that Hearn is saying. But for Joshua to be overlooking the Parker fight, it just goes to show you that he doesn’t have his mind where it needs to be for this Saturday. There are guys that Joshua can afford o overlook, and then there are fighters that he needs to be totally focused on. Parker is the type of opponent that Joshua should be very worried about because he’s got the size, power, speed and the boxing IQ to get the job done on Saturday night.
”Those last two fights, if they’re judging me on that and thinking that I’m coming into this fight being the same fighter that they feel I’m going to put on the same performance, well, this is different,” Parker said to Yahoo Sports News.
Parker had elbow surgery on both elbows recently before this fight with Joshua, and he believes that his speed and punching power will be better for this contest than it’s been. Parker will need to be greatly improved for the fight against the 28-year-old Joshua, because the effort that he showed against Hughie Fury and Razvan Cojanu won’t be enough for him to get the job done against Joshua without him landing a good shot on the jaw.
Parker needs to be able to throw combinations against Joshua for him to send him down for the full 10 count. Wladimir Klitschko had Joshua down in the 6th round last year in front of 80,000 boxing fans at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Wladimir wasn’t able to keep Joshua down. He got back to his feet and showed good recovery skills in coming back five rounds later to knock Wladimir out in the 11th. Parker says he won’t let Joshua survive if he knocks him down during the fight. We’ll see if that’s true
”I feel like we’re going back to the days where we showed a lot of speed, we showed a lot of movement and we showed a lot of combinations,” Parker said. ”That’s what’s exciting. Everyone is underestimating us and thinking we’re going to put on the same performance, but we’re going to give everyone a surprise,” Parker said.
Parker sounds like he’s an older fighter than he actually is. Parker is just 26-years-old, and he’s not had any really tough fights yet during his career other than Carlos Takam and Andy Ruiz Jr. You can’t say that Parker’s fight against Hughie Fury was a tough one.
Joshua suddenly looking bigger in last 2 weeks
Joshua has been saying that he’ll come into the fight with Parker around 243 pounds, but he’s recently started to put weight on in the last 2 weeks. It’s unclear whether Joshua is dealing with water retention or if he’s simply eating a lot. It could be anything. Sometimes the body reacts in a strange way when a person starves themselves and focuses on aerobic activity. As soon as one starts eating normally again and doing less cardio, their weight frequently springs back to what it was before. Joshua is now looking like he’s close to 250 lbs. again. I don’t think he’s going to be in the 250s like he’s been in his last two fights, but I think he could easily be 248 or 249. Joshua is built too much like Primo Carnera. His body just naturally wants to be in the 250s. What you have to be concerned with is what happens when dieting and cardio work no longer works for Joshua to keep his weight below 250 lbs. Does he then watch his weight go increasingly upwards into the 260s or will be retired by that point?
“Let’s say 17.5, 17.4,” Joshua said in estimating his weight for Saturday’s fight against Parker. Joshua is expected to be between 10 to 15 lbs. lighter for the Parker fight than the 254 lbs. that he weighed in for his last match against Carlos Takam.
Parker has dropped weight after experimenting last year by bulking up. Parker’s trainer Kevin Barry points out that he put some weight on and it didn’t work out as well as they thought it would be.
”Last year, we bumped Joe up quite a bit,” Barry said to Yahoo Sports News. ”We put a bunch of muscle on him. We put on an extra 10 lbs. of weight on him, and it actually doesn’t work out for us.”
The thing about Parker is he put the weight on, but it didn’t translate into more punching power, speed or improved conditioning. Parker just got bigger without any added benefit in terms of results. So for the Joshua fight, Parker has dropped weight, and he plans on using speed and movement to win this fight rather than bulk. Joshua is the one that depends on size to try and win his fights. Parker is different. He needs to use his speed and mobility to get the better of fighters like Joshua.
Joshua is going to be looking to end the fight as soon as possible on Saturday night at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. As Joshua likes to say, ‘I don’t get paid for overtime.’ He’s going to be looking to knockout Parker as fast as possible, because he sometimes has stamina problems when his fights go into the deeper rounds.
Joshua has looked so good in the last several years of his career that it’s hard for boxing fans to give anyone a chance against him other than Deontay Wilder. There’s no telling when that fight will get made if ever. Joshua’s promoter is putting roadblocks in front of Wilder by insisting that he fight Dillian Whyte before he’ll let him face Joshua. Who knows what happens if Wilder calls Hearn’s bluff and beats Whyte. Does Hearn insist that Wilder face Parker and beat him or someone else? Parker has a chance of removing Joshua from the equation on Saturday and setting up a fight between him and Wilder.