Kiwi helping Brits win medals
Former Highlanders trainer and ZingariRichmond lock Mark Campbell should know more than most what will happen when Anthony Joshua climbs into the ring next weekend to take on Joseph Parker. He catches up with sports editor Steve Hepburn.
LET us get one thing right — Mark Campbell does not train Anthony Joshua. Campbell said, from telephone from Sheffield in northern England yesterday, he is not Joshua’s trainer.
He does know plenty about the British boxer and his frightening abilities, and said he has done a bit of consultancy work to help Joshua. But Joshua, who will take on New Zealander Joseph Parker in Cardiff next weekend in a heavyweight title unification bout, is trained by Rob McCracken, a friend of Campbell’s.
Campbell (43) left Dunedin and New Zealand in 2007 after working with southern rugby franchise the Highlanders for four years.
From there it was not a long and winding road to get into British boxing and the chance to work with some of the most promising boxers in the world.
He simply went straight to England and there he stayed.
‘‘I interviewed and got the job when I finished up with the Highlanders and came across in August 2007. I was based in Sheffield and have been here ever since.’’
Campbell, who is originally from Porirua but spent more than a decade in Dunedin, firstly studying and then working, works for the English Institute of Sport, and provides support in the strength and conditioning area for athletes across many sports.
That covers sports such as diving, athletics and boxing.
He is heavily involved in the boxing programme which works with Olympians, Paralympians and Commonwealth Games athletes.
The programme has been instrumental in the Great
Britain team wining three Olympic medals in Beijing, five in London and three in Rio de Janeiro.
Boxing is on a high in the United Kingdom and if fighters are to achieve — such as Joshua, who won Olympic gold in 2012 — it starts in the amateur ranks.
‘‘What you find is guys who are amateurs want to go to professional ranks so are supremely motivated. What they have to do they do well . . . and you ask the guys I train. I’m one of the most sadistic bastards in the world. When there is time to work, then I work.
‘‘I was lucky with the grounding that I got. Rugby was great and I got to work with some phenomenal athletes with the Highlanders.’’
He played in the second row for ZingariRichmond in the late 1990s — joining after club stalwart Gordon Baird bought him a jug at the Mornington Tavern — and then started a training career with North Otago and moved through the system to be the strength and conditioning coach at the Highlanders.
But there was only one gig left in New Zealand rugby — the All Blacks — and with Nic Gill happily ensconced as the head trainer in the All Black camp, Campbell decided to head elsewhere.
‘‘You are certainly limited in New Zealand while here I am working in 14 to 15 sports. The variety is great. And as long as you keep succeeding, every four years there should be a job for me.’’
Campbell is married to Rona, a Scot, and they have a daughter Ailsa (2) with another child due this year
He said strength and conditioning was a mix of strength, power, speed and athleticism. It came down to working hard and staying consistent. In his role, he had done some consultancy work with McCracken and Joshua, and said the British boxer was ‘‘quite a phenomenal human being.’’
‘‘In my job you get to see the ability of AJ [Joshua] so I would have to say he is my tip to win. But it is boxing and one punch can win it. And I have not seen much of Joseph Parker.’’
He would be attending the fight in Cardiff next weekend with tickets supplied by the British boxer.
‘‘He [Joshua] has got the right mix of explosiveness, the speed, the build, the athletic gifts, the raw power. If I compared him to a rugby player then he could quite easily play as a winger.
You are talking about a 110112kg guy who has got lightningfast reflexes, is strong, and is a really big size.
‘‘He is a really nice guy and you get him outside the ring, he is a friendly guy, who helps anyone. But put him in the ring and he is a different story. He’s got that attitude that you have to have.’’
Heisa really nice guy and you get him outside the ring, he is a friendly guy, who helps anyone. But put him in the ring and he is a different story Mark Campbell (pictured), referring to Anthony Joshua
Age: 26
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 1.95m (6ft 4in) Record: 24 wins 0 losses
Knockouts: 18
The road to unification
After debuting in 2012, Parker easily accounted for his first 18 opponents with 16 finishes before a rise in class pitted him against the granitechinned Carlos Takam in a WBO title eliminator in May, 2016.
Possessing a superior jab and a higher work rate, Parker passed his first real test, winning a unanimous decision.
Two stoppage wins followed before Parker won the WBO title in December 2016, beating Andy Ruiz jun in a razorthin victory that might have gone Ruiz’s way had he kept his hands up and moved his head more often rather than defending with it.
A forgettable unanimous decision win in May last year against Hughie Fury replacement Razvan Cojanu followed.
Parker dominated every round but failed to hurt the big Romanian, with whom he had sparred over 80 rounds in the leadup to what he thought would be a fight with Fury.
Parker finally faced WBO mandatory Fury in his second title defence last September in Manchester.
What was meant to be Parker’s big showing on the British scene turned into a limp arrival, as Fury refused to truly engage and Parker chased him around the ring rather than smartly cutting the ring off.
Parker won by majority decision, two judges scoring it 118110 and the third scoring a draw.
Strengths: A proven chin tested against Takam and Ruiz, a strong jab, some of the fastest hands in the division and deepwater 12round experiences. Weaknesses: Has a tendency to drop his hands down, especially his lead left, sometimes backs straight back defensively as opposed to sliding away to his right, gets hit a
lot and he seems to have lost the knockdown hurt in his hands.
Keys to victory: Silence the crowd by starting strongly, jab hard and often from different angles, take the air out of him by landing body shots, keep up a relentless pace and throw some left hooks. Brit Dillian Whyte and Wladimir Klitschko both hurt Joshua with left hooks.
Anthony Joshua
WBA (super), IBF,
IBO champion
Age: 28
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 2.01m (6ft 6in)
Record: 20 wins 0 losses
Knockouts: 20
The road to unification
Following an Olympic super heavyweight gold win in 2012, Joshua turned professional in 2013.
He racked up 14 stoppage wins, all inside three rounds before facing his first genuine threat in Whyte in 2015.
Hurt in round two, Joshua
recovered well to outpunch Whyte and eventually stop him in round seven.
Joshua won the IBF title in April, 2016, easily dispatching Charles Martin.
Two straightforward defences followed before an epic stoush against Klitschko in London last year.
With four knockdowns in total, both men contributed to one of the best heavyweight fights in recent memory.
Joshua recovered from being dropped and in real trouble in round six to stop Klitschko in round 11 thanks largely to a cracking right uppercut.
With three belts to his name, Joshua then controversially beat 12days replacement Carlos Takam in October when the fight was stopped in the 10th round, despite Takam appearing fine to continue.
Strengths: With a reach of 82 inches (2m), Joshua has about a fiveinch reach advantage and that is massive against Parker. He also has a dominant jab, plus a lethal right hand and uppercut, and he possesses legitimate knockout power.
Weaknesses: Never been in the deep waters of 12 rounds, limited head movement, has a lot of muscle mass to circulate oxygen around for fuel, does not have a glass chin but it does not look unbreakable either.
Keys to victory: Use his reach advantage and punch from range, do not get into a toetotoe battle and instead outbox Parker, making him get desperate to land.
The prediction
Parker performs admirably becoming the first to take Joshua the distance but he fails to regain his knockout prowess and struggles to get inside Joshua’s jab.
Joshua wins via decision.