By Kenneth Friedman: Negotiations for fight between former heavyweight world title challengers Joseph Parker (26-2, 20 KOs) and Dereck Chisora (31-9, 22 KOs) is close to being finished for fight on October 26 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Parker’s manager David Higgins is putting the finishing touches to the deal, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. The winner of the Parker vs. Chisora fight stays in contention for a world title shot against champions Andy Ruiz Jr. and Deontay Wilder.
Parker, 27, has left New Zealand where he originally came from and is heading to Las Vegas, Nevada to begin training for the important fight. He’ll be trained by long time coach Kevin Barry.
This is Parker’s second fight of a three-fight deal with Matchroom Boxing USA. In his first fight, he destroyed 39-year-old Alex Leapai (32-8-4, 26 KOs) by a 10th round knockout on June 29 on the Demetrius Andrade vs. Maciej Sulecki undercard in Providence, Rhode Island. The fights were streamed on DAZN. As one would surmise, there wasn’t much interest from the boxing public in the Parker vs. Leapai fight on the card.
It was a showcase fight for Parker, who battered the over-matched former world title challenger Leapai around the ring until stopping him in the 10th. It was such a mismatch that Parker gained no credit from fans in beating Leapai. Parker looked bad at times with his inability to knockout what for all intents and purposes was a punching bag in Leapai
Work with @johnboxerparker 💥
🎥 : @kerryrusselltv pic.twitter.com/rzyeLJ9fhM— Joseph Parker (@joeboxerparker) August 21, 2019
Parker vs. Chisora = 50-50 fght
Despite an age difference between Parker and the 35-year-old Chisora, this is a 50-50 that could go either way. Chisora, who fights like the late great Joe Frazier, is hard to hit clean with shots. For a big guy, Chisora is elusive at times, and he has a lot of punching power. Chisora carries his power late, and is dangerous at all times in his fights. He’s won his last two fights since suffering an 11th round knockout against Dillian Whyte last December in London. In Chisora’s last two fights, he’s beaten Artur Szpilka and Senad Gashi. He looked good in both fights.
That was a fight in which Chisora was on his way to winning, but the referee Marcus McDonnell caused him to lose concentration in the 11th round when he took a point away from him for the use of an elbow. This was the second time in the fight that McDonnell had singled Chisora out to penalize.
It looked to some boxing fans like Chisora was fighting two people inside the ring that night. Earlier in the fight, McDonnell taken a point away from Chisora in the 8th round for a low blow. The shot was low, but Chisora hadn’t been throwing a lot of low shots before that. The referee could have given Chisora warnings rather than taking a point away so quickly. When Chisora was docked a second point in the 11th by the referee, he lost his cool, and started swinging wildly. Whyte took advantage of Chisora losing his head by knocking him out with a left hook.
Parker has a 2-fight winning streak going since losing to Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua. In Parker’s two fights since then, he’d beaten Alexander Flores and Leapai.