Parker is ‘red
Stuart Duncan knows Joseph Parker better than anyone. As Duco Boxx has charted the Kiwi’s career. He gives his views on how the fight withh
INmy mind this is a 50-50 fight, but I still feel that Joseph Parker’s style can see him beat Anthony Joshua. Kevin Barry and I have watched every punch that Joshua has thrown as a professional and we have been chasing him for a long time.
In 2015, I rang Eddie Hearn looking to set up a fight with AJ and he basically didn’t want to know anything about it.
I rang him again in 2016, offering plenty for AJ to come to New Zealand, or we were happy to go over to the UK. He said they were sniffing around a world title shot with Charles Martin and ‘let’s leave it until we can make it a big fight’.
That day has finally arrived but my point is, we have felt that Joe has had AJ’s measure for a long, long time.
People are writing Joe off simply because of his last two performances against Razvan Cojanu and Hughie Fury. They are foolish to do that.
Cojanu was a disaster. I warned Joe against fighting one of his sparring partners at the last minute, telling him he was going to find himself in front of a different fighter to what he had trained with, and that’s how it played out.
We always knew Fury was one of the most awkward, ugly fighters you’d ever wish to meet. But we had to take the fight because it was the mandatory. I knew Joe would beat him, but it was always going to be ugly. He won comfortably but it wasn’t pretty.
Those who know me well, know that I have always been my own boxers’ greatest critic. But I’m confident Joe will rise to this occasion and you’ll see a better Joseph Parker. He has got the Andy Ruiz fight under his belt, he knows what the pressure is like.
The word from Las Vegas is the training camp was tremendous and that everything is on target.
So there is something telling me Joe is going to beat AJ.
It’s nothing to do with luck on the night, it’s nothing to do with AJ coming in underdone. They aren’t underestimating Joe. Some of the UK media and fans may be but, trust me, the last people underestimating Joseph Parker are Anthony Joshua and Eddie Hearn.
Joe punches as hard as AJ, has got better hand speed, and is also more mobile.
So he’s not a live underdog, he’s a red-hot chance of winning this fight.
I don’t see Joshua stopping Joe. Joshua couldn’t really put Carlos Takam away – that fight was called off prematurely, make no mistake about that.
Joe has the fastest hands of anyone that AJ has fought. Joe also has a chin of granite.
We have seen him get tagged, but his punch resistance is better than anyone AJ has fought.
We know that Joe can go the distance and we know that he can fight on the inside, which will be important with Joshua’s jab and reach.
Much was made of Team Parker questioning Joshua’s chin in the process of making the fight happen.
It was justified because it’s true and it was a ploy that worked.
If you want anyone to throw a spanner in the works, then Joe’s promoter David Higgins is your man. What he did was absolute genius. It was designed to get under their skin and to get the best result and David got exactly that.
Of course there are huge dangers in a fight against an opponent as powerful as Joshua.
Joe can’t afford to go back in a straight line. He will end up in one spot, and one spot only, and that’s against the ropes.
That’s where Joe doesn’t want to be because that’s where AJ loves to unload – when you have got your back against the wall basically.
So that’s a key thing here – Joe has to make effective use of angles going forwards and backwards.
When I say going forwards, he has to cut the corners of the ring by using angles moving forward to trap AJ – to get him on the ropes. AJ doesn’t go back in a straight line, so you have to cut the corners.