Parker pride
Next stop Dunedin?
Showers of Corona bottles hurtled through a million Mexican television sets, but it was a fight that Joseph Parker can be proud of winning.
I scored the fight seven rounds to five, or 115-113, to Ruiz, but Parker showed tremendous courage, fitness and a deal of skill to sway the judges.
If the fight had taken place in Guadalajara it might have been a different decision. But close fights usually go to the hometown boy. That has been the way of boxing for 100 years.
There were moments in the sixth and seventh rounds when you wondered if Parker had pulled the old rope-a-dope trick. Ruiz seemed slightly punched out and Parker began to put on a bit of footwork and a bit of swagger.
He was catching Ruiz with some big right hands, but the Mexican showed that he could not only take a punch, but counterpunch hugely effectively. Both men were ‘‘some kind of tough’’. Both men will have done their box office appeal no harm at all as Bob Arum looked on with calculating eyes.
It was heck of a fight, that exposed a lot of strengths and a lot of weaknesses. If Ruiz could hustle Parker so effectively inside and catch him with so many body shots, you wonder what a really big brawler like Tyson Fury might have achieved.
Parker was also caught with far too many counter punches. If he is this open against a boxer with the power of Anthony Joshua then he will get his lights knocked out. He looks a couple of years off the very top of the division yet.
Parker knows he was a bit lucky to get the decision. He looked very worried before the verdict and a little sheepish after it. Ruiz said: ‘‘I think I got the win. I came over here and fought in his home town. Congratulations to Joseph Parker. The judges score what they want to judge. Maybe we’ll get the rematch.’’
It was a plea that Parker’s trainer seemed happy to back up. Kevin Barry said: ‘‘I think these guys will fight again.’’
I am not sure that the promoters Duco will be so keen. Ruiz had the bottle and confidence to come and fight Parker in Auckland. Will the champion now return the favour and take Ruiz on in Mexico City? Somehow you suspect Parker is now worth too much money for that to happen. A draw would have set up a popular rematch, but Parker now has less risky routes forward.
Against the top fighters in the division, Parker will have to start far more quickly. He was smiling, mugging and winking for the cameras beforehand, but you would like to see more edge. Parker was bewildered by Ruiz’s hand speed early on and only got back into the fight when the Mexican began to slow.
It is doubtful whether the top three fighters in the division have seen terror in Parker’s hands. But they will have seen a big heart.
He was briefly tagged Jurassic Parker ahead of the fight, but tyrannosaurus rex he is not. Parker is a heck of a young fighter, but far from the dominant beast in the division. The question is whether he has the power to overcome the really big heavyweights.
Parker can claim to be a heavyweight champion of the world, but for now he is the indefinite article. Surely not even his mum would yet claim he is ‘the’ heavyweight champion of the world.
That is not to be churlish. On Saturday night Parker, a decent and courageous young man, set up his family for life. But he still has a long way to go before he is the most terrifying man on the planet. He has a long way to go before he can be called king of the world.