From glowering face-off to Clark Kent
Acalm Joseph Parker senses ‘‘serious anger’’ in Anthony Joshua but welcomes that ingredient from his imposing opponent in their heavyweight unification fight.
Parker and Joshua squared off in their final press conference in London before the big bout in Cardiff on Sunday NZT).
Parker, looking like Clark Kent – bespectacled (they were just glass, not real lenses) in a threepiece suit – was called to the top table first to warm applause at a lavish event at the headquarters of host broadcaster Sky TV on the outskirts of London.
When Joshua was introduced to a round of cheers from the large group of attending Sky TV staff who see their cash cow as Superman, he strode past the seated Parker without a sideways glance, steely eyes straight ahead.
Both had their say, offering the same thoughts on their respective credentials that have been spoken so many times since this fight was confirmed back in January.
Basically each believe neither have faced opponents like they present. And both are confident they will win.
It was more interesting to study the body language and Parker picked up on an angry presence from Joshua throughout the encounter which finished with two lengthy face-offs for the cameras where Joshua was the first to pull the trigger and break the stare down.
Call that a double moral victory to Parker.
‘‘He seems angry, seriously angry, I could feel it,’’ Parker said later.
‘‘Being angry before a fight, I don’t know if that’s the best way of approaching a fight. There’s tension that he shouldn’t be wasting on being angry or upset.
‘‘If he’s angry, let him continue to be angry. I hope he gets angrier.’’
Parker noted Joshua avoided eye-contact when he glanced over at the seated Joshua.
‘‘He’s definitely upset about something,’’ Parker said.
It doesn’t take much to know what. Parker and his handlers have confused and annoyed Joshua from the outset with their tactics of persistently questioning his ‘‘glass chin’’ and fighting style.
That has continued in London over the last 10 days or so.
Asked if there was danger in stirring the beast in the massive Joshua, Parker didn’t back away.
‘‘I think it will make him dangerous but it won’t be in a controlled way,’’ the 26-year-old Kiwi-Samoan said. ‘‘If he comes on the attack he won’t be thinking as clear if he’s angry.
‘‘I’m cold-blooded . . . everything is thought about in my head properly.’’
Back to the eyeball confrontation to finish proceedings on the stage.
‘‘They told us to face off and told us to split but he wouldn’t move so I didn’t move as well, I thought I’ll just stare. He backed away.
‘‘I think I’ve been victorious out of the ring, now I have to be victorious inside the ring.’’
Once again Joshua fronted on a question about contemplating defeat, admitting ‘‘the fear of losing keeps me going’’.
Parker felt that was ‘‘being realistic’’.
‘‘If you are facing someone like myself or if I’m facing someone like him, of course someone is going to lose, so we’ll think realistically,’’ Parker said later.
‘‘But to be totally honest, I don’t care about winning or losing, I just want to get in there and face the challenge and do my best.
‘‘Whatever the result is, I can deal with it because I know I have trained so hard to get to this point and if I leave it all in the ring, then I’m sweet.’’