Once bitten twice shy for Kiwi fighter
Joseph Parker is taking no chances with spiders as he looks to get his career back on track.
The 111kg heavyweight was laid low by a spider bite last year, causing him to drop out of a highprofile fight with Britain’s Dereck Chisora in London.
Parker was bitten in New Zealand but the symptoms only started hitting him during his Las Vegas training camp which he was eventually forced to abandon.
On his return home, one of the first things he did was to start a cleaning regime at his south Auckland house to try to ensure there would be no repeat.
With three young daughters, he’s also conscious of their health.
‘‘I’m getting my house treated every two weeks now, sprayed and I’m getting my house water blasted every few weeks,’’ Parker said in Texas as he prepares to fight North American champion Shawndell Winters on Sunday.
‘‘I’m on point at keeping those spiders away from me, we saw what they did.’’
Withdrawing from the Chisora fight effectively put him behind in his planned progress under his three-fight deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
Had things gone according to plan with Parker fighting and beating Chisora, he’d now be facing a major opponent in a headline act in his quest to get back into the title mix.
Instead, after just one fight in 2019, he’s four fights down the classy card assembled in Texas with a welterweight clash between Mikey Garcia and Jessie Vargas top of the bill.
A frustrated Parker acknowledged his inactivity, noting his busy period of five fights a year between 2014 and 2016 and three times a year in 2017 and 2018.
‘‘Yeah, 2019 was a very slow year. One fight. Who would have thought I’d be bitten by a spider and have to pull out of the fight?’’
Parker copped plenty of ridicule for coming up with one of the more bizarre withdraws from a fight in boxing’s long list of believe-it-or-not moments.
He got medical certification for his condition and has repeatedly explained his experience. It’s one he certainly doesn’t want to go through again, a feeling he likened to a battery draining.
At 28 and time ticking away on a career he plans to end around 31, it was a wasted year.
He made the most of a bad situation though, playing up on his Spiderman image, including merchandising that moment.
Floored by a tiny eight-legged pest, Parker now sets his sights on dishing out his frustrations on Winters in a fight he must win.
Parker has been forced into a game of catchup in a division threatening to run away on those who can’t handle the pace.
Duncan Johnstone flew to Texas with the help of Duco Boxing.