By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker and his promoter David Higgins have pulled out of negotiations for fight againt former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora for a fight on April 20 in London, England. Higgins believes that Chisora’s side of trying to delay that negotiations so that Parker, 27, wouldn’t get a full nine week camp to prepare for the fight, which is what he felt hurt him in his fight with Dillian Whyte last July.
The question is was Chisora trying to get an edge on Parker to try and beat him by having him unprepared for the fight?
“Joseph Parker will not be fighting Dereck Chisora in London on April 20,” Higgins said to the nzherald.co.nz. “They’re basically trying to steal a few weeks of advantage – and home advantage. Del Boy’s [Chisora’s] approach was cowardly in that he watched his compatriot Dillian Whyte basically force Joe into a seven-week camp with home advantage and officials,” Higgins said.
You can argue that this isn’t a big deal. Parker is better off going in a different direction anyway rather than fighting a guy coming off of a knockout loss like Chisora. Where’s the gain in Parker fighting Chisora in a situation like that?
It wouldn’t be surprising if the negotiations between Parker and Chisora (29-9, 21 KOs) restart at an accelerated pace in order to get the fight done. However, unless Parker has already started his training camp, he won’t get his nine weeks if that’s what he needs to beat a guy like Chisora, who is coming off of an 11th round knockout loss to Dillian Whyte on December 22 in their rematch.
So instead of Parker (25-2, 29 KOs) getting a nine week camp, he might have been stuck with a six or seven week camp to prepare for the 35-year-old Chisora, who for all intents and purposes, is a glorified journeyman at this point in his career. You can argue that Parker wins this fight with even a one-week camp. Chisora is pretty well past, and he always was a flawed even during his prime. Yeah, Chisora gave Dillian Whyte major problems in their two fights, but he’s not an elite heavyweight or even close. Whyte is a good fighter but he’s pretty much at the same level as Chisora is talent wise. Those two fights that they had easily could have gone to Chisora with a different referee for the rematch and a different set of judges for the first fight.
Well, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn can always stick David Allen in there with Chisora for the April 21 fight card. Allen might even win. Chisora has a massive amount of mileage on him. If Hearn wants to salvage the card, he can always stick Allen in with Chisora for the main event. That would be a laugh if Allen pulled off a big upset. I’m not sure you could even call it an upset. Chisora was getting handled well by 38-year-old Carlos Takam in his fight before his last one when he was able to catch him with some shots to score a comeback knockout in the 8th round in July 2018. Allen can punch at least as hard as Takam. He would make it interesting.
You’ve got to feel sorry for Parker at this point. He’s had horrible experiences fighting in the UK against Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, and yet he keeps coming back. Who can forget the referee that prevented inside fighting in Parker’s fight with Joshua last March in Cardiff, Wales. The referee basically crippled Parker’s game by breaking the action each time there was inside fighting, which was his only chance of winning against the taller Joshua. And then you had Parker basically mugged by Whyte in their fight in at the O2 in London last July. There was a horrible call by the referee Ian John Lewis in the second round in which he gave Whyte credit for a knockdown after he rammed heads with Parker like a Billy Goat. Then there was all the fouling that Whyte got away with, and wasn’t penalized for. With all that, Parker still wants to go back to the UK for a third helping.
Parker has got to expect his opponents to try and get an edge against him. That’s a given, and a sign of respect. But if he doesn’t want to keep dealing with this kind of thing, then he should focus on fighting in his own country in New Zealand so that he has the home advantage.
At this point, Parker needs to fight good quality contenders, not journeyman level fighters like Chisora. If Parker wants to fight those type of guys, then he probably won’t go anywhere with his career. He needs to start fighting relevant heavyweights like Adam Kownacki, Kubrat Pulev, Alexander Povetkin, Joe Joyce, Filip Hrgovic and Sergey Kuzmin. Pulev easily beat Chisora in 2016. Pulev should be the one that Parker and his team are trying to setup a fight against rather than a journeyman level fighter like Chisora, who is coming off of an 11th round knockout loss. How does Parker get motivated to fight someone like that?