JOSEPH PARKER
Joseph Parker is a former world heavyweight champion with something to prove, writes John Dennen
Catching up with the New Zealander in London ahead of his Box Office bout
IT’S no easy feat for a former world heavyweight champion to reclaim a title. During his prime years Wladimir Klitschko managed to become a two-time champion but could not win back his belts against Anthony Joshua last year. Only now is Tyson Fury taking tentative steps through the lower echelons of the division.
Joseph Parker, however, is determined to bounce right back. After losing his WBO championship to Anthony Joshua in Cardiff, Parker might have been expected to tick over with a couple of soft touches. Instead, Parker is going straight into a serious fight with Dillian Whyte. Victory will set the winner up for a world title shot, defeat will be a major setback.
“I love challenges, I love fighting the best out there. I want to be a team where everyone goes, ‘That’s the team that doesn’t care who they fought. They fought everyone and anyone,’” Parker said. “Going into this fight, we know it’s a 50-50 fight. We respect him as a fighter. He looked tremendous in his last fight [against Lucas Browne]. For us, we want to have meaningful fights. Meaningful fights bring out the best in us, these challenges bring out the best in us. There’s no point going into a camp, coming out and then blasting someone in two, three rounds. This is a fight where we know it can go either way. We’re hungry to get back to the top and be champion of the world again. There’s no other way than to fight the best out there, and we believe he’s one of the best.”
You might think, if they weren’t fighting on Saturday (July 28), that Joseph Parker rather likes Dillian Whyte. He’s followed his career, fondly recalls Dereck Chisora hurling a table at him. “I saw that. Watch Dillian, he didn’t flinch. Sat there and watched it,” Parker noted. “He’s a good talker, if it was down to a talking challenge, he’d win… I know the week of the fight he’s going to try to say a few more things to try to get under our skin. I don’t think anything has really got under our skin in the past, I don’t think it will for this fight… We just take it as it comes really.”
As far as Parker is concerned, though, that mindset makes Whyte a dangerous fighter. “The strengths that he has: his confidence, he backs himself. He doesn’t shy away from a challenge. He throws a lot of punches for a heavyweight and he likes to keep busy. Weaknesses: everyone has weaknesses, I tend to find them out on fight night,” Parker said. “If you compare the two, I might have a bit more speed, I might have more technicality in terms of how I box. It does matter, but when it comes down to a fight, it’s who wants it more. He wants it bad. But I want it really bad as well.”
Parker has something to prove after his fight with Anthony Joshua. While he managed to go the distance, many felt he was neither aggressive enough nor ambitious enough over the course of their 12 rounds. “The confidence I had, my movement was good and defence was good. I needed a bit more attack. I needed to let my hands go a little bit more. That’s something that we’ve worked on now, improved on. But you can never turn back time and I’m happy with my performance, but I can do better. I know I can be better and I can show everyone better,” Parker said.
Joshua, however, was not what he had expected. The unified world heavyweight champion is harder to box than Parker thought. “He surprised me. I expected a guy that comes forward and throws bombs looking to get me out of there. I was looking for him to walk on to something big. But he changed his whole approach and I think that’s a sign of a good boxer. If it’s not going your way or if you feel like this way needs to change, you change and adjust, change your performance in the ring. That’s a sign of him being one of the best,” the New Zealander said. “His reach, he really used his reach and distance well. Every time I tried to come in, he would put up his hand, stop me there, just create the distance, the little gap that he could control. He controlled the distance very well.
“The things that he did didn’t allow me to do what I could do on a different level. [With] other fighters I could do it. With him there’s things that I did that stopped him doing what he wanted, things that he did that stopped me from doing what I wanted. A lot of fighters say that was a great technical fight. Other people that didn’t see a lot of action thought it was a boring fight.”
That’s one thing he promises to correct next. He guarantees the fight with Whyte will not be dull. “He’s eager to be champion as well. It’s going to make it exciting. I think it’ll be different. I’m not going to be as defensive. I don’t want as much movement... I just want to throw punches. And I know he’ll do the same. He doesn’t hang about, he comes out firing,” Parker said. “We’re young and hungry. I’ve already tasted being a champion. I’m hungrier now. I’m excited.”