Parker ‘struggled to connect’
Joseph Parker conceded he had ‘‘connection problems’’ with his heavy punches against Razvan Cojanu while his trainer Kevin Barry admitted surprise the fight went the distance.
The washup to Parker’s successful first defence of his WBO world heavyweight title in Manukau on Saturday will continue to put the spotlight on Parker’s punching power.
While his camp was delighted to retain the belt that gives Parker so much bargaining value as he enters the next phase of his career offshore, there were still some concessions as they dissected his performance.
As he has done against quality opponents like Carlos Takam and Andy Ruiz, Parker was able to find a way to win against a lessertouted but tricky fighter in Cojanu. But he achieved that without delivering the big hits to put his major rivals on notice.
Parker, coming off the longest break of his five-year career, didn’t hide from that as he failed to deliver the statement performance he had demanded of himself going into the hastily rearranged fight
‘‘The connection wasn’t really there with the punches ... but he can take a punch,’’ Parker said of battling long and hard against one of his key sparring partners who was mouthy throughout the fight.
‘‘I connected a bit now and then but I didn’t really connect properly. But the punches that did connect hurt him and that’s the reason why he started talking and telling me that I was scared,
‘‘When you laugh and you talk in the ring, it means you are hurt. I did hurt him, I could see it and I saw his legs wobble a little bit.’’
In analysing a fight that failed to spark but saw Parker use his superior glove work to easily mount a unanimous decision, Barry reiterated his pre-fight warnings about the 2.02m Cojanu.
‘‘He knew more about Joe than any previous opponent and I think we saw that. Every time Joe was in a position to set up a combination, Razvan has seen it many, many times before in over 100 rounds in the gym. I knew it was going to be that sort of fight. It did not surprise me,’’ Barry said, before adding a telling point.
‘‘Was I surprised that he stood up to those punches? Look, I really was surprised that Joe didn’t get him out of there. But in the 100 rounds we sparred him in the gym, he’s never been down, he’s never been hurt. And that’s why we use this guy, because he’s so bloody durable.’’
Barry felt there were plenty of positives to take away from Parker’s fifth points victory in an unbeaten run of 23 fights. Parker’s chin survived another stern test as he brushed off several strong shots from Cojanu.
Most importantly was Parker’s ability to keep his cool against a constant barrage of trash talk, flying elbows, clinches and head holds from the largely negative Cojanu that even saw the Romanian docked a point in the fourth round. ’’I liked that Joe was patient,’’ Barry said.
’’Raz was trying every trick in the book to unsettle Joe and get him to fight his style of fight to give him a chance to get lucky. He was trying to entice him into a brawl.
‘‘There was no chance that he was ever going to outbox Joe. His only chance was to knock Joe out and to do that, he had to get Joe to engage in close-quarter combat. For 95 per cent of the fight Joe fought very disciplined.
‘‘I’m very happy with the win ... we just defended the world title. We didn’t lose it and now we are on to bigger and better things.’’