By Scott Gilfoid: Joseph Parker is leaving nothing to chance for his fight next month on July 28 against highly ranked #1 WBC Dillian Whyte at the O2 Arena in London, England. Parker, 26, says he wants to knockout Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) because he’s fighting in his home turf in London. Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Parker (24-1, 18 KOs) thinks it would be a mistake for him to go to the UK hoping to win a decision against the 30-year-old Whyte.
In Parker’s last fight, he ventured into the UK and lost a 12 round unanimous decision to home fighter IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) on March 31 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Parker found out the hard way what it was like to be the visiting fighter against Joshua. The referee working their fight prevented inside fighting from both fighters, so it forced Parker to fight the taller, longer-armed Joshua on the outside.
With his six-inch reach advantage, Joshua was able to easily win the fight by jabbing his way to victory. Due to the referee stopping inside fighting, Parker had no choice but to fight on the outside. Parker hurt Joshua on a couple of occasions during the fight after nailing him with right hands. We’ll never know for sure how the fight would have gone down if a better referee was working the contest. Would Joshua have been able to handle Parker’s inside fighting if the referee had allowed inside fighting? Unfortunately, we’ll never know. All we can say is Joshua was very lucky that he had that referee working the fight because it would have been a different story with a different referee that inside fighting.
“When you are fighting in someone’s backyard a decision isn’t an option for you. As soon as you go there to fight you have already lost unless you get a knock out,” Parker said to Stuff.
Parker won’t be giving away as much reach against Whyte as he did in his fight against the 6’6” Joshua. Whyte will have a two inch reach advantage, and you can bet that he’ll try and take advantage of that by staying on the outside as much as possible to win rounds. Despite having a lot of knockouts on his resume, Whyte isn’t a big puncher. Most of Whyte’s knockouts come from him landing an accumulation of blows over the course of his fights rather than a quick knockout. Whyte does well against stationary fighters that are there for him to hit repeatedly. He’ll never be a true knockout guy because he lacks the power on his shots. Whyte is more of a slapper than anything. He does punch to the body well, but he leaves himself wide open when he does go downstairs.
Parker will have the power, mobility and hand speed advantage in this fight. Whether it will help him get the victory may depend on if he can knockout Whyte, as winning a decision may prove to be very difficult. Whyte beat Dereck Chisora by a controversial 12 round decision two years ago in Manchester, England. Chisora appeared to win, but Whyte was given the nod on the scorecards. Boxing News 24 had Chisora winning that fight. Parker would do well to make sure he doesn’t allow the fight to go to the scorecards, as he might end up in Chisora’s shoes if he fails to KO Whyte in this contest. Whyte is promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing. Hearn is in charge of a huge promotional powerhouse in the UK.
“I think his style is perfect for us. He comes forward and throws a lot of punches. Sometimes when
you focus on attacking the other person you can make a mistake and walk into a big one.”
Whyte is there to be hit, that’s for sure. If Parker wants to end this fight inside the distance, then he definitely will have a chance of doing that on July 28. Of course, Whyte will likely try and keep the fight on the outside in the early part of the fight to see if he can win rounds by boxing. Parker might need to take the action to Whyte if he wants to knock him out. If Whyte can put rounds in the bank with his jab, he’ll do so. Parker needs to go after Whyte’s chin and look to duplicate Joshua’s efforts in stopping him in the 7th round in 2015. Whyte suffered a left shoulder injury in the Joshua fight. Joshua didn’t face a healthy Whyte.