Joshua camp planning to goad Parker
LONDON: Anthony Joshua and promoter Eddie Hearn plan to ‘‘goad’’ Joseph Parker and David Higgins in their headtohead press conference in London today in what will be an attempt to further hype the fight and to get under the skins of the New Zealanders.
The coverage of Parker in the British press so far has been overwhelmingly positive due mainly to the 26yearold’s laidback charm and extremely accommodating nature.
He has been accessible and open here in the capital. Joshua, hidden away at his camp in Sheffield nearly 300km north of London, has not.
Hearn is looking for a way to wrest back the initiative, in terms of headlines at least, and has settled on a strategy to force the issue at what could be a fiery press conference at the Sky Sports television studios in west London.
The Kiwi camp’s campaign to draw attention to what they believe is Joshua’s glass jaw before the contract was signed has not been forgotten by Hearn or, apparently, Joshua.
Hearn feels Higgins did not front on the issue at the initial press conference in January when the fight, on Sunday at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, was announced, and so he is going to have another go at it.
For his part, Higgins has always said the campaign, successful in hindsight, was devised to make some noise from New Zealand and to get Hearn to the negotiating table.
‘‘I like David Higgins and I want him to speak up,’’ Hearn told Sky Sports UK.
‘‘I want him to look Anthony Joshua in the eye and tell him the banterish stuff he says to me.
‘‘I just told Anthony that he basically said you are going to get knocked spark out, and Joshua said: ‘OK, let’s hear it next Tuesday, then, at the press conference’.
‘‘I’m giving him notice and I’m saying we want to hear it from you and Joseph Parker.’’
‘‘Eddie and I have a funny relationship,’’ Higgins told Sky Sports UK in reply. ‘‘We get on good, and there’s banter. Maybe he’s trying to wind AJ up? I don’t know. I can’t answer.
‘‘I have talked publicly about Joshua’s weaknesses.
‘‘I stand by them. I think he’s a bit slow and less mobile than Joseph Parker. I think his chin on paper is not as good. He has been dropped a few times. Parker has never been dropped in his life.’’ — NZME