Trainer refuses to take media snub on chin
Chances are that when the dust settles from their heavyweight clash in Cardiff a week tomorrow, Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua will be falling over themselves to be respectful of each other, no matter the result, but right now it seems to be getting personal.
Joshua’s snubbing of the New Zealand media who travelled the 270km, four-hour car trip from London to Sheffield on Wednesday to interview him at his open press day struck a chord not only with the journalists but also Team Parker, and in particular trainer Kevin Barry.
In the past eight weeks, Barry and his wife Tanya, and Parker, have hosted dozens of British media at their Las Vegas home and gym; providing time, access and hospitality.
That respect apparently hasn’t been reciprocated by Joshua, whom Parker will meet in the Principality Stadium ring, and neither Barry nor Parker’s promoter David Higgins were prepared to let it go unnoticed.
“Make your own mind up,” was Higgins’ reply when asked about Joshua’s snub. “Some people are humble and some people pretend to be humble. I’ll let the public make their own minds up but for those Kiwi journalists to drive all the way to Sheffield and for him to walk out and leave them standing, that says something. It goes to character.”
Barry went further, suggesting Joshua, a 28-year-old with one of the highest profiles in the sport, should get off his “high horse”.
During Joshua’s media session at England’s Institute of Sport, he described Parker as “weird” and the Kiwi’s promotional team at Duco Events “backstabbing” in a surprising show of apparent oversensitivity.
“It is a little disappointing,” Barry said. “There are two fighters in this fight. This is a world heavyweight unification fight, the first one for eight years.
“This is not just about Anthony Joshua. There is an undefeated world heavyweight champion called Joseph Parker and his people are here from New Zealand and they are here from Samoa. Show them a little respect.
“Hopefully he [Joshua] gets off his high horse and when we do the press conference next week, he will speak to the New Zealand media who are here and give them the respect they deserve, as we have done to the UK media.
“We’ve had a very busy household of media from the UK. We’ve had them for breakfast, we’ve had them for lunch. Sometimes they’ve been in the gym with us the whole day. Some teams were with us for three days at a time.
“We’ve been very inviting, we’ve opened our home and our gym to them.”
It is a little disappointing. There are two fighters in this fight. This is not just about Anthony Joshua. Kevin Barry
On a bit of a roll, Barry said few here in Great Britain, including the bookies, were showing the respect a now injury-free Parker deserves.
“I think bookmakers have bought into this marvel of Anthony Joshua, I think they’ve over-read the Klitschko performance. We’re talking about a 41-year-old man who looked pretty sloppy in his fight before that.”