PARKER’S A BIG PUNCHER BUT I’M TOO GOOD FOR HIM
Upbeat AJ primed to build upon his legacy in and out of the ring
ANTHONY Joshua has a dream. One of which Muhammad Ali would have approved.
Britain’s world heavyweight champion is planning to open a museum showcasing his career as an inspiration for a generation of deprived youngsters to follow his pathway from the back streets to the stars.
Joshua is stockpiling artefacts from his fights in the hope that he can continue his ascent towards the undisputed world heavyweight championship.
The project adds extra motivation for tonight’s latest stadium extravaganza in which he is expected to add Joseph Parker’s WBO belt to the WBA, IBF and IBO titles.
Then it would be on to America’s WBC champion Deontay Wilder in a bid to become the first stand-alone master of the heavyweight boxing universe since Lennox Lewis.
That, he feels, would justify opening his museum, the idea for which took firm hold when he visited the Ali: The Greatest exhibition at the O2 last year.
It is also part of the reason why the undefeated Joshua says: ‘I must not lose. Too many people are relying on me.’
Some of them will be in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium for the third fight in succession to which Joshua will have drawn crowds of around 80,000.
Many more who he wants to reach will be watching on television in humble surroundings similar to those of his own upbringing. Joshua has just posted a reminder of his background on the internet. It is a photograph taken seven years ago of him chopping wood as part of his community service sentence for a drugs offence in Watford.
Why now? In big fight week? Because he wants to send a message to young people in despair.
‘What would I say to that kid in the picture?’ he asks himself. ‘Don’t feel there’s nothing out there for you. Don’t just focus in on your own estate and community.
‘Use all the information media to broaden your horizons. Put in the hard work. Watford was all I knew. I thought the trouble I got into was going to be the ruin of my boxing. But my trainer Rob McCracken and the officials stood by me. Backed me to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
‘There’s another AJ out there now just needing some help.’
At only 28, today’s AJ still has plenty to give in the championship ring. He talks of ‘10 years of heavyweight domination’ and backs up those words by maintaining peak physical condition.
He has come down from the career-high 18st 2lb to 17st 4lb for this most recent title defence. He answers criticism of that extra muscularity by saying: ‘Carlos Takam was a small heavyweight and I used size as my advantage to bully him around. Parker is a different challenge. He’s a big puncher who has lost weight himself because he believes he can make speed count against me.
‘But is being quick and able to punch enough to make him the best heavyweight in the world? Don’t think so.’
The New Zealander of Samoan origin does look much leaner than when he laboured to victory over Hughie Fury last year.
He attributes his conditioning to being able to train full- on and without pain following operations to repair both elbows.
Although eyebrows were raised by the revelation of surgery taking place as recently as December, Parker insists: ‘The elbows are fine. Not only am I fitter than I’ve been for two years, but I’ve got back the knockout punching power I had before that.’
Maybe so. But he must expect Joshua to give those arms a rough and ready flexing when they come
to the clinches. Such is the brutal reality of the ring, in which a proper fight with a warrior as big as AJ will be a very different proposition from sparring in the gym.
Parker and his shrewd trainer Kevin Barry have based their preparation and strategy on the premise that Joshua has a vulnerable chin and is liable to fade late in the fight.
In reality, any heavyweight can knock down another if he lands a meaty shot to the jaw, but Joshua proved in last year’s epic Wembley victory over Wladimir r Klitschko that even if he hits the canvas he has the heart and strength to get up again. And win as late as the 11th round.
McCracken dismisses the doubts about his man’s staying power, saying: ‘AJ didn’t struggle through the middle rounds against Klitschko because of a lack of stamina. He was recovering from one of the heaviest punches he has ever taken in his life.
‘Once he got through the fog he came back for that big finish.’
Joshua is bracing himself for two eventualities. First, he is ready for Parker to mount a charge from the start in hope of catching him cold. When that fails he expects the Kiwi to try to use his speed of hand and foot to hit and run, in an attempt to steal a decision.
Those do appear to be the only two scenarios offering any hope for Parker.
Joshua’s own prediction holds the greater likelihood as to how the fight will unfold. He sees a tough, close start to the action followed by his own considerable punching power breaking Parker down come the eighth or ninth round.
It may well take time because Parker’s other asset is a resilient chin. He, too, is undefeated but unlike Joshua he has never been knocked off his feet.
Whenever the end comes, Joshua will ask for the floor of the ring to be taken up, folded away and sent back with him to London.
The most unusual of all the memorabilia he has in store — along with the gloves, the hand-wraps, the posters, the photographs — are the canvases from all his big fights. Joshua was concerned when told this week that the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville — where the mementoes of the fighting life of The Greatest are at the heart of a cultural foundation — may be in some financial difficulty. As he considers buying Finchley Boxing Club — his
alma mater to which he often returns — he says: ‘I’m thinking about adding to the old place a foundation where kids can be educated in healthy living, discipline, hard work, respect for all races and religions. I could have gone the other way but I choose to be respectful. So can they.’
He knows they will listen more intently as long as he keeps winning. The improvements he is constantly making to his boxing add to his confidence that he will do just that tonight.
He says: ‘ More and more it’s about my performance, my skills, my technique. Not just going for the quick knockout.’
By such patience AJ should prevail again.
Probably by a late-ish stoppage, even if the durable Parker is still upright when the Italian referee intervenes. Perhaps by the first points decision of Joshua’s professional career.