Barry: AJ ‘most overhyped’
BOXING
Joseph Parker’s trainer Kevin Barry has labelled Anthony Joshua ‘‘the most overhyped fighter in the world’’ with their boxing heavyweight title unification fight on the cusp of becoming a reality.
Parker’s promoter David Higgins was en route to London yesterday to finalise a deal with Joshua’s boss Eddie Hearn for a fight that will put the Kiwi’s WBO title on the line as well as the big Brit’s WBA and IBF titles.
Barry has returned to his Las Vegas base after overseeing Parker’s pre-Christmas training camp in Auckland.
Parker will join him in the US city after completing promotional activities in London once the fight is signed – perhaps as early as the end of the week.
Barry has always been adamant that Joshua’s style suits Parker and he reiterated that yesterday, while also drawing attention to the massive profile Joshua has quickly earned on the back of his unbeaten run over 20 professional fights following his gold medal winning effort at the London Olympics in 2012.
‘‘I have a lot of respect for Anthony Joshua. He’s proven to be a great amateur, he’s undefeated as a professional, but I also believe that there is a lot of hype around this man and I think he’s probably the most overhyped fighter in the world at the moment,’’ Barry told Sky Sports in the UK as hype intensifies there.
‘‘Joe has always wanted this fight. When Eddie started talking after the Carlos Takam fight that Parker was first up in 2018, we weren’t even looking at this fight, we were looking at other opponents, and then Joe said: ‘Let’s make this fight. That fight is out there, let’s go for it now.’
‘‘He saw a lot of things in the Takam fight that really excited him. I think the Takam fight really put everything back into perspective.’’
Joshua was widely criticised for his 10th round TKO of Takam with the rugged Frenchman taking the fight on 12 days notice as a replacement for Kubrat Pulev. Parker won a torrid 12 round unanimous points decision over Takam in 2016, bringing things into perspective for the Kiwi who turned 26 on Tuesday.
‘‘We’ve been planning for this day. We’ve been thinking about this fight, we’ve been visualising Joe in the ring with Joshua. The styles of these guys match up very, very well,’’ Barry said.
He also reiterated to the British media that Parker will come into the fight considerably lighter than his recent efforts where he has looked sluggish in his first two title defences against Razvan Cojanu and Hughie Fury, labouring to points victories.
That was the reason for the Auckland camp where Parker worked entirely on his fitness rather than boxing skills.
There have been suggestions that Joshua is also looking at his weight after he fought Takam at his heaviest and failed to inspire.
The unification fight is planned for March 31 with Cardiff’s Principality Stadium the front-runner among venues.
Parker is set to earn NZ$12-13 million and Joshua about $38m.