Fury doubts if Joshua can take it on the chin
Sidelined superstar Tyson Fury says Joseph Parker is in a no-lose situation against Anthony Joshua and is backing the Kiwi’s questioning of the big Brit’s ‘‘glass chin’’.
Parker is willing to put up his WBO heavyweight title in a unification fight with Joshua who holds the IBF and WBA belts.
Parker has been aggressively calling out Joshua and that’s not been lost on Fury, the monster from Manchester who once ruled the division before falling on tough personal times.
Fury, never short of an opinion, is backing the ‘‘tough as brick’’ Kiwi to upset Joshua.
Fury supports the theories about Joshua’s ability to take a punch, a point highlighted by Team Parker in a controversial video featuring Joshua being repeatedly floored by different opponents. ‘‘Eddie Hearn and Joshua see Joseph Parker as an easy victim, but like that clip [video produced by Team Parker last week] showed – the little fat Bulgarian chinned him, bish, bash, wallop, and sat him down in the corner,’’ Fury said in an interview with IFL TV.
‘‘He [Joshua] was a big weightlifter then too and that was a little fat man punching his head in for him. Can Parker beat him? Yes, he can. Parker is as tough as a brick and as game as a pebble and is young and ambitious with no expectations on him..’’
Fury suggested all the pressure would be on Joshua. ‘‘This isn’t Muhammad Ali, this is a man built up believing in his own hype and a man who is going to come crashing down to earth very, very soon.
‘‘There are no expectations on young Joseph, he’s a young man coming for a pay cheque isn’t he, so he can’t lose. It’s a no-lose situation. If he loses to Joshua, ‘oh, he was supposed to lose’.
‘‘But if he wins he becomes legendary and then I’ll have to come back and give him a boxing lesson, which I don’t want to because he’s my mate.
‘‘Parker can beat Joshua, he can knock him out. Joshua’s chin is dodgy. We know this for a fact.
‘‘We’ve seen Klitschko drag him off the canvas, wobble him, shake him, rock him, the young Daniel [Dubois] 20-year-old is supposed to have knocked him out in sparring.
‘‘We know he can be hurt and hit because we’ve seen it on TV.‘‘
Fury’s support comes as Parker reveals he is willing to offer Joshua a rematch clause to get the fight across the line.
Parker is seeking 35 per cent of the profits from what would be a huge unification fight with early plans suggesting it could happen in London in late March.