PRIDE OF THE PACIFIC
This morning, even churches will delay their Easter Sunday services as the boy from south Auckland takes on the world.
Joseph Parker could earn a rematch with Anthony Joshua even if he loses the world heavyweight unification fight in Cardiff this morning.
The fight contract says a rematch will only happen if Parker wins, giving the big Brit a chance to win back his belts. Parker would get a juicy 55 per cent of that sequel.
But Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said a good performance in defeat by Parker might be enough to give him another crack at Joshua.
‘‘If it’s a great fight people will want to see it again,’’ Hearn said as he joined fellow promoters David Higgins and Bob Arum to discuss the fight where Parker puts his WBO belt up and Joshua has his WBA and IBF titles on the line. The rematch happens if Joshua gets beaten. But I will say this as well: If Parker gets beaten don’t rule out the rematch.
‘‘Because if it’s a great fight we want to do it again.
‘‘Also if Joshua loses and it’s not a great fight, maybe we won’t do it again even though there is a clause in the contract. It’s all judged by public demand.’’
There was a chance a suitable rematch with Parker could be more appealing than trying to work through the difficult negotiations of an unreasonable WBC champion Deontay Wilder in a quest to gain the fourth and final major belt and find an undisputed champion.
Arum, the veteran American promoter who guided Muhammad Ali in the golden era of the glamour division, agreed.
‘‘The biggest rivalry in my time has been Ali-Frazier. They fought three times and the best was the third fight, the ‘Thriller In Manilla’’,’’ he said.
‘‘I think the heavyweight division needs those kind of rivalries. If this fight is a really good fight why not doing it again?’’
Hearn backed Joshua to win and suggested it might come earlier than he had originally anticipated, though he did have some encouraging words for Parker.
‘‘I thought this fight was going to go very late but now I think it will go inside six rounds,’’ Hearn said. ‘‘I just see a sharpness in Joshua that I have not seen before.
‘‘It’s not a disrespect to Joseph Parker and it could go late and I believe Joseph Parker has a big chance to win. But I don’t know, something just tells me . . . I know Parker is tough and he has a great chin but there is a difference in AJ.’’
Hearn didn’t agree with Parker’s talk that Joshua was being motivated by anger after being called out repeatedly by the Kiwis.
‘‘You haven’t got under his skin but there’s a lot more focus in him for this fight.
‘‘He’s not edgy because someone said he has got a glass jaw. He’s edgy because this is everything to him. He has to win this fight. It’s not that he fears Parker but he fears how good Joseph Parker is. I think this is the toughest fight of his career.’’
GO TO STUFF.CO.NZ FOR COVERAGE FROM 5AM