Saukuru to lift standard

London: Joseph Parker’s team is already calling out David Haye, even though the Brit cannot be the Kiwi WBO champion’s next opponent. The search for a massive pay day has Parker’s handlers dreaming of an outdoors clash against Haye at the legendary Wembley Stadium in London.

The late-April, IBF title fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko will draw a crowd of up to 90,000 at the famous Wembley venue, providing gate receipts of around $14m in a fight that will be worth $75m. Realists may regard Wembley as a step too large for a Haye-Parker fight, but Duco boss David Higgins talked the prospect up on Radio Sport. Parker’s initial WBO heavyweight title defence is pencilled in for early April with Hughie Fury, Jarrell Miller and David Price the known candidates in a very fluid situation for a fight which will be held in Britain, America or New Zealand.

Next stop Haye, the 36-year-old Brit who held a unified cruiserweight title and then the WBA heavyweight crown. Haye made a comeback 11 months ago after a three-and-a-half year absence. He was initially given the first crack at the winner of the Parker-Andy Ruiz WBO title contest, which Parker won in slightly controversial circumstances in Auckland. But Haye pulled out of contention, and will instead fight fellow Brit Tony Bellew, a cruiserweight, on March 4. Higgins claimed Haye was running scared of Parker. “We think Joseph will beat Haye, and we think Haye thinks the same,” he said. “He did a runner, we think he was worried that Joseph would beat him. So he’s gone and taken another fight. Now they have elevated him to number one, suggesting he should be the second defence (for