‘I am a Samoan warrior like Dad. It’s in our blood’
Parker says he’s scared of no one — except mum and dad
Gareth A Davies
Joseph Parker is afraid of no man in a ring, and certainly not Anthony Joshua. “That’s not how I’m made,” says Parker, as he contemplates Sunday’s world heavyweight title fight in Cardiff. “I am Samoan and we are a warrior nation, with different ways. We think differently.” You believe him, too. This might be the biggest bout of Parker’s life — with 80,000 fans expected to fill Cardiff’s Principality Stadium and three of the world heavyweight titles on the line — but there is a quiet author- ity in his voice which brooks no dissent.
It helps explain his record of 24 victories, 18 of them knockouts, with no defeats, and why he wears the World Boxing Organisation heavyweight belt.
In fact, the only people Parker fears are his parents: his father, Dempsey, named after the famed Twenties world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, and his mother, Sala.
“My parents scare me — if I do something that disappoints them, I want to go hide somewhere,” Parker says. “I’m not scared of anything else.”
His father’s remarkable life, in particular, has shaped his own.
“He was born in Samoa, but he didn’t know his own dad,” Parker says. “He was one of 27 or 28 kids and my mum is one of 26.
“When he was a baby, someone stood on his leg and that’s why he can’t box.
“One leg is skinnier than the other leg. But he had a lot of street fights, and if he had a good leg, he’d be taller than me. His whole life he was treated pretty bad. He lived out in the bush until he was 27, hunting for food like a real bush man — he had a big beard as well.
“He was surviving on bats and eels and berries. But all that made him stronger. Then he came to New Zealand and had his own family.
“He’s told me all about it and everyone in the family has told me how hard his life was. And every time they tell me, they get emotional. A big part of all this is for dad. I want him to see his son being successful.”
Parker clearly owes much to his father, not least his stoicism. Dempsey took him on the pads at