Joshua unimpressed by Parker’s ‘clown’ jab
Joseph Parker appears to be getting under the skin of Anthony Joshua as he looks to set up a heavyweight unification fight with the big Brit.
Parker’s relentless Twitter attacks on Joshua, coming on top of his controversial video highlighting the WBA and IBF champion’s ‘‘glass chin’’, appear to be working.
Parker wants to put his WBO belt on the line against Joshua in Britain early next year, and his constant hounding is proving fruitful.
Joshua is clearly getting agitated, accusing Parker and his Duco Events boss David Higgins of ‘‘acting’’ and labelling them ‘‘clowns’’ as he did a round of interviews in the UK yesterday.
‘‘It seems like everyone’s doing the talking for some people at the minute, so we’re just trying to go direct to the source,’’ Joshua told PA Sport.
‘‘There’s one thing talking about what’s going on, and acting, but negotiations aren’t done over social media. That’s not where negotiations take place. Behind closed doors we’re keeping negotiations going.’’
Parker’s latest Twitter taunts include telling Joshua if he won’t take 65 per cent of the purse it’s obvious he doesn’t want to fight and also that he is prepared to give the Brit a rematch clause to help get the fight across the line.
Joshua likened the Team Parker approach to ‘‘clowns’’ and wants to bring some respect to heavyweight boxing like that exists in other top level sport.
‘‘Don’t wind me up, I just think it’s poor PR management,’’ Joshua said.
‘‘You have the Rodger Federers, they compete with Rafael Nadal, they compete with Andy Murray ... can you imagine him making a video like that and then doing a press conference?
‘‘Then you have the Lewis Hamiltons, the Ronaldos and Messis ... that’s where I want to try to take boxing.’’
Joshua felt ignoring the taunts was his best approach.
‘‘I’ve just realised I swerve all these clowns in my industry .. there’s a lot of jealousy and negativity and I’m not really breathing that type of energy around, so I just swerve those types of clowns to be honest.’’
Joshua confirmed that negotiations with Parker were ongoing while his promoters were also in talks with WBC champion Deontay Wilder about a unification fight later next year.
‘‘The situation with Parker, we have presented an offer to them, and we’ll patiently wait,’’ Joshua told Sky Sports in the UK.
‘‘Nothing’s been agreed and it’s the same situation with Tyson Fury.
‘‘I want to be the undisputed champion of the world, and to do that I must fight Wilder and Parker.
‘‘With Wilder - who said I’m running scared - the same situation, and we’ve been talking with his team.
‘‘We staged a fight with one of the all-time greats, Wladimir Klitschko, and staged a fantastic fight at Wembley, where we put our egos and demands to one side.
‘‘But I just don’t know where Parker and Wilder’s mindsets are and what they want. I just think they have poor PR management.’’
Parker has gained heavyweight support with former champion Tyson Fury agreeing about the claims over Joshua’s suspect chin and publicly backing the Kiwi to win, a point that won’t have been lost on Joshua.
Joshua wouldn’t be drawn into where a fight with Parker might be held with London’s O2 Arena appearing too small for the occasion but there are difficulties around a large outdoor stadium at that time of the year and Wembley Stadium, where he fought Klitschko last year in late April, is complicated by Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur using it.
‘‘That’s not my job. I work with professionals and put them in place to care for these types of things,’’ Joshua said
‘‘I should be focusing on how I’m going to knock out my next opponent.
‘‘I’ll leave that to the people who I put in place: the professionals to take care of it. We’re looking to fight early on in the year, to potentially fit in another two towards the middle and the end of the year.’’
Joshua said he had done an extensive review of his muchcritcised last performance against Carlos Takam and felt comfortable with his 10th round TKO effort, especially as he fought for a long section of the fight with a broken nose after being head-butted.
‘‘It was a great fight: a great learning fight. He was coming in low enough to pop up and headbutt me. It was a completely different style of fight but we adapted and got the job done. It was a mature performance on my behalf ... a calculated performance due to the anticipation of what’s happening in 2018.’’