Parker will fight Joshua again — Barry
AUCKLAND: Joseph Parker will fight Anthony Joshua again.
That was the declaration from Parker’s trainer, Kevin Barry, in the wake of Parker’s loss to Joshua in the Cardiff heavyweight unification battle.
Barry said Parker knew he should have thrown more punches in the 12round fight, won on a unanimous decision by the giant Brit.
But the CompuBox stats suggest Parker’s problem — no doubt influenced by Joshua’s longer reach — was precision.
Parker threw many more punches than Joshua but landed a lot fewer. The prob lem started in round one, when he landed just five of 50 attempts.
Parker’s greatest problem came in landing jabs, and he did not reach a 30% success rate in any round, whereas Joshua was almost always above that.
‘‘He’s 26 years old and the best fights are still in front of us,’’ Barry said. ‘‘One thing I do know — Joseph Parker will fight Anthony Joshua again.
‘‘Joe was very gracious in defeat. He knows that we lost to a better man on the night, a bigger better man.’’
Barry said the Parker camp had received plenty of positive messages.
‘‘I’m dying to sit down and watch the fight. I would have liked a ref who let Joe work when he got in close . . . we knew going into fight Joe had a serious reach disadvantage.
‘‘When he got inside, the referee broke it up straight away and took that advantage away from us.
‘‘I would have liked Joe to throw more punches. He knows he should have thrown more punches; his fitness was fine at end of fight, he wasn’t breathing hard.
‘‘With the experience and contacts we’ve made in the last two or three months here, the fan base and brand awareness Joe and Duco have developed in the UK, there is every chance our next fight will be back here.
‘‘We need to come back even stronger. He was a little emotionally tired. It’s a big ordeal — he just went through a lot of pressure for a young guy.’’