PARKER IS EAGER TO SHOW HIS FURY
JOSEPH PARKER reckons he is ‘Mr Entertainer’ now thanks to taking a leaf out of Tyson Fury’s book — as well as trainer Andy Lee’s.
The New Zealand heavyweight takes on Londoner Joe Joyce in Manchester on Saturday in the battle to be the No.1 challenger for Oleksandr Usyk’s WBO crown.
Parker was known for being hard to beat but relatively dull while he was world champion and faced Anthony Joshua in 2018.
He had just beaten Hughie Fury in a snooze-fest the previous year. Even when he came back after the loss to Joshua and then Dillian Whyte, he was a fighter who boxed seemingly within himself against the likes of Junior Fa.
But now he reckons new trainer Lee has unlocked his entertaining side that he showed in his last outing — his second win over Derek Chisora.
The Kiwi scrapper said: “I turned into a fighter who was passive and defensive. Still getting the wins but I wasn’t taking risks and I wasn’t aggressive enough.
Damage
“When you are so passive and defensive, you don’t really have the opportunity to do damage.
“I want to be more on the front foot, to back my power and my speed.”
Parker, like most, was stunned when gymmate Fury went on the front foot against Deontay Wilder in their second fight and destroyed the American after being perceived as a counterpuncher on the back foot.
Parker said: “He shocked me. I was like, ‘Wow’. I took it a bit from that but also from Andy.
“The first fight was getting to know each other so we practised moving but for the second fight Andy said, ‘You need to put it on him and fight fire with fire’.
“When I came out for that second Chisora fight, he went on the back foot first and that set the tone. Even though I was going back at times, it wasn’t as much as the first fight.”
Parker faces the unbeaten Joyce this weekend and he knows if he can shine in exciting style, then even bigger fights will be around the corner for him.
He added: “If you are more enter-taining, fans will want to see you but you have to do it in a way you’re not taking a risk of hurting yourself.
“That’s what everyone wants to see. I want to mix it up now.”