PARKER’S MUM ON THE BIG FIGHT
As top New Zealand boxer Joseph Parker prepares for the fight of his life, Lee Umbers talks to his proud parents, who are always in his corner.
Joseph Parker will need to be at his elusive best when the Kiwi champion takes on British powerhouse Anthony Joshua in the world heavyweight boxing title unification bout in three weeks.
Proud mother Sala Parker, meanwhile, has shown some slick bob and weave moves of her own.
With the boxing world spotlight on her son after his WBO title win in 2016, Sala had been enjoying relative anonymity in her first year of studies for a counselling degree.
As she was starting the course, a fellow student remarked, “Oh, you’re the only Samoan in the class,” Sala recalls.
Had there been another Samoan in the class she would have been immediately recognised, she says.
Her oldest son is so popular in the Pacific nation he has been awarded an Order of Merit and a half-day public holiday was declared to celebrate his world title win.
But her classmates were not fight fans. “They don’t know about boxing, and I was happy as anything.”
Her cover was blown over the summer break, however, with the increasing media build-up to what will be one of the biggest moments in New Zealand sporting history.
Lecturers saw Sala being interviewed about her son’s historic fight, which will be screened in more than 100 countries.
“They saw me on TV and they saw my photo in the Herald, and when I went back to school this year, they were like, ‘Oh, you’re a good secret-keeper, you kept it all this long’.”
The butterflies started rising from the moment it was announced her son, 26, would fight WBA, IBF and IBO title-holder Joshua, 28, who has knocked out all 20 of his professional opponents.
“He’s dangerous. Strong. Muscular. Hopefully he’s not going to land any good [punches] on Joseph.”
But although Sala is concerned her son “might get hurt”, she says he has reassured her “many, many times”.
“We talk every day. He says, ‘Mum just relax. When you go to the fight, enjoy it. Don’t worry. I’m training really hard to put him on the floor’.”
Sala, 51, who loves seeing her son perform in the ring but still winces when he is hit, offers him technical advice after each fight.
Her tip for his upcoming bout against one of the hardest punchers on the planet is: “Just don’t stand in front of him, move around.”
Sala and husband Dempsey, 57, fly to the UK next week to support Parker and younger son John, 23, who is on the undercard for the sold-out event at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on March 31 (April 1, New Zealand time).
The family will gather the day before the fight to pray for their sons’ protection and success, and “for the safety of all the fighters”.
Hearing of Sala’s concerns, Joshua has said: “I’ll put Parker in my prayers that he leaves the ring in good health, and he goes back to New Zealand and his family in good health.
“A mother’s love is unconditional so I respect that. Tell his mum not to worry — I hope he leaves the ring in safe condition.”
Sala thought Joshua was “naturally nice”. But she was unhappy with trash talk around the match-up.
As Parker’s fight camp was trying to negotiate the super-bout, jibes flew about Joshua having a “glass chin”.
After the fight was signed off, Parker’s coach Kevin Barry said comments were for the purpose of theatre.
“We don’t think he (Joshua) has a dodgy chin, but we know he can be knocked down,” Barry said.
Sala says when she attended a press conference in Auckland during the push for the bout, she went to the back of the room and saw a statue of a glass head.
She asked what it was for and was told it had been brought along as a prop. “And I said — no, don’t let that happen, put it away! They didn’t use it.”
Sala was also unimpressed by talk show host Graham Norton’s comments about her son. Interviewing Joshua on The Graham
Norton Show, the host featured an unflattering photo of Parker and said he looked like the “king of pies”.
“When I saw that, I’m like — ‘Who the hell you think you are?” Sala says. She has refused to watch Norton’s show since.
Parker himself responded to the dig with humour. “Looking the part doesn’t always get the win,” he told the Herald at the time. Asked what physical shape he was in, he said “circle”.
He had taken some time off and put on a bit of weight, he said, but could burn it off fast.
Sala says her son had needed a break after years of hard training, including rising from bed every day at 4.50am as a schoolboy to pound 8km around the pavements near their Mangere East home.
He left New Zealand weighing 121kg, but with intense training was back to 109kg within a month of returning to his Las Vegas base, where he stays with Barry.
Sala stepped into the ring alongside her son for the first time when he defeated Andy Ruiz in December 2016 at Vector Arena to become the WBO world champion.
He had asked her to do so throughout his rising career, but she told him she would do it only when he won the world title.
“That was one of the happiest moments for Joseph. I was able to step into that ring and celebrate it together with him and the team.”
The world title was the culmination of a dream for Parker — and a source of pride and joy for Dempsey and Sala. Their son had trained hard to achieve a potential his father first noticed when he was a preschooler.
After Parker began jabbing into his hands at about 4 years old, Dempsey (named for US boxing great Jack Dempsey) got a tiny punching bag and gloves for his son to train with.
When Parker won the title, the delighted family thanked “the Lord for all the blessings” that He had endowed their son with, Dempsey says.
Sala will “most definitely” climb into the ring in Cardiff to celebrate with her son if he wins.
The Team Parker fight purse for
“That was one of the happiest moments for Joseph. I was able to step into that ring and celebrate it.”
Sala Parker