Parker told to quit NZ

WLADIMIR Klitschko’s trainer has labelled Joseph Parker a ‘‘fearless dude and good talent’’ but urged the WBO heavyweight champion to move away from New Zealand to make his fame and fortune.

Johnathon Banks, Klitschko’s head trainer since the great Emanuel Steward passed away in 2012, will be in the giant Ukrainian’s corner when he tries to win back his IBF and WBA belts fighting Anthony Joshua in front of 90,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium on April 29.

It starts a huge week in the heavyweight division with Parker defending his WBO belt against Britain’s Hughie Fury in Auckland the following Saturday.

All the talk is about unification and Banks, who has been in Klitschko’s corner for 20 world title fights, can see Parker looking to take on the winner of Klitschko-Joshua.

‘‘I can, I can ... and I can also see him fighting Deontay Wilder. The dude is fearless and he don’t care who he fights,’’ Banks said of Parker, 25, who he invited to work with Klitschko in 2015.

‘‘He’s a good talent. I’ve seen him sparring with Wladimir and I think he’s pretty good.’’

Banks felt Parker needed to fight offshore to make a real mark in the division. He wasn’t helping himself by operating in the comforts of isolated New Zealand.

‘‘If Parker wins (against Fury) he should go anywhere where the challenge may be. He’s not that dominant a figure for everyone to go down there, to go way down there to New Zealand to fight,’’ Banks said.

‘‘Australia and New Zealand ... who wants to . . . no-one already wants to go there.

‘‘If he’s successful in defending his title, he will have to come to Europe or come to the States, not only to make more money but to be a bigger name.’’

Banks felt Klitschko was still the standard-bearer of the division despite being 41 and he wasn’t sure if Parker should fight him, though the rewards would be handsome.

‘‘He may, you never know. Right now, Wladimir is still the cash-cow of the division. Other guys make money but you aren’t making the money you want or would like to make unless you’re fighting him. That is the power he carries right now and there’s a reason for that, because he’s been dominant for so long.’’

Banks predicted Fury, younger cousin to Tyson Fury who took Klitschko’s haul of belts with a shock win in late 2015, would present a tricky challenge for Parker. It would come down to desire on the night.

‘‘I see it as a difficult fight for both guys,’’ Banks warned. ‘‘Parker is fast and throws a lot of punches, Fury is not as fast but he’s very big and very strong.

‘‘Both guys don’t have a lot of experience. You’ve got ‘young’ versus ‘young’. Neither guy has the most experience.

‘‘Is it a chance of ‘whose going to be the fastest?’. No that’s not going to win. ‘Whose going to be the strongest?’. That’s not going to win. ‘Whose going to be the most dominant’ is really the cause of who is going to win the fight because both guys are young and both guys are fast.’’