By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker is targeting the winner of the May 5th rematch between Tony Bellew (29-2-1, 19 KOs) and David Haye (28-3, 26 KOs). Parker’s team is hoping they can get the winner of that fight, and they might have a good chance.
Bellew has no interest in facing IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua or WBC champion Deontay Wilder. Unless Bellew wants to keep fighting Haye repeatedly, he might as well face Parker (24-1, 18 KOs), because he’s probably not going to get a shot at the winner of the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament between Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev anytime soon.
Parker’s promoter David Higgins hopes the winner of the Haye vs. Bellew 2 fight will step up and agree to face Parker. Higgins might be waiting a long, long time for either of those guys to mix it up with Parker, because he’s frankly too dangerous for either of them. Parker gave Joshua all he could handle in their fight last month on March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Not only did Parker extend Joshua for the full 12 rounds, but he also hurt him on several occasions with his heavy shots. We’ll never know what Parker could have done in that fight if there was a good referee working that allowed inside fighting. It’s unclear whose idea it was for that particular referee to work the Parker-Joshua fight, but it sure helped Joshua, didn’t it? If there had been a referee that prevented outside fighting, Joshua’s goose would have been cooked, because he couldn’t fight a lick on the inside.
“He’ll be seen as dangerous and a lot of guys are very mouthy and derogatory towards Parker in putting him down like Bellew, or like Dillian Whyte,” Parker’s promoter David Higgins said to skysports.com. “The question is whether they would be willing to step up? We are ready, willing and available,” Higgins said.
I doubt that Haye will want any part of Parker if he beats Bellew on May 5. Haye wants a title shot against Joshua, and Parker would be too risky of a fight. Even though it would help Haye immensely if he were to beat Parker, I don’t think he’ll take the risk.
With Bellew, it’s hard to say whether he’ll fight someone like Parker. Bellew has only fought Haye at heavyweight, and the only reason he won that fight was because of the Achilles tendon injury the Hayemaker suffered in the 6th. I don’t think for a second Bellew could beat any of the top contenders in the top 10 at heavyweight. I would favor the following heavyweights over Bellew: Luis Ortiz, Alexander Povetkin, Kubrat Pulev, Dillian Whyte, Dominic Breazeale, Carlos Takam, Adam Kownacki and Jarrell Miller.
If the Bellew vs. Haye winner does agree to fight Parker, hopefully the fight takes place in a neutral venue with a good referee and quality judges. Parker won a controversial 12 round decision over Andy Ruiz in 2016 while fighting in his home country of New Zealand and a lot of boxing fans felt he should have lost that fight.
I think Parker should go in another direction rather than pushing for a fight with the Bellew-Haye 2 winner, because I don’t see either of those guys wanting any part of him. What Parker should try and instead is to call out Dillian Whyte, Parker, Kownacki, Oscar Rivas, Dereck Chisora, Agit Kabayel, Johan Duhaupas, Luis Ortiz, Charles Martin, Bryant Jennings, Christian Hammer, Otto Wallin or Jarrell Miller and see if one of them want to fight him. At least if Parker beat one of those guys, he’d get pushed up the heavyweight rankings and that would improve his chances of eventually getting a rematch against Joshua.