It’s looking quite likely how rival heavyweight champions Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker could meet next spring. As fans may be aware, WBO champ Parker and his team have pressed very hard for a unification fight with Joshua, the WBA/IBF ruler – this week holding a quite bizarre press conference where footage was shown of AJ being troubled and knocked down in fights; a “reward” offered to anyone with video evidence of Parker being decked at any time – and it seems Joshua has bitten.
Joseph Parker
Joshua expects to be grouped with Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson if he beats Wilder and Parker
IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is ready to put himself in the same class as boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson if he can beat champions Deontay Wilder [WBC] and Joseph Parker [WBO] next year. Joshua feels he’ll be mentioned with those greats when/if he defeats Parker and Wilder.
Will it be Joshua-Parker or Joshua-Wilder next?
It’s all down to the money side of things now. This is certainly how it looks, anyway. Deontay Wilder, as relentless as ever with his calling out of rival heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua – now telling BBC Sport he will come to England to fight “little girl” Joshua if he has to do so – wants to fight, as he puts it “ASAP.”
Joshua too says he wants the fight, but Wilder is not so sure AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants it: “I think Eddie is ducking more so than Joshua,” the WBC ruler said. So, as the two sides argue over the cash split (Hearn is, as we know, extremely reluctant to give Wilder anything close to a 50-50 split) WBO boss Joseph Parker enters the scene in a major way.
Joseph Parker-Lucas Browne possible for March; Team-Browne accepts offer
Joseph Parker, like just about every other active heavyweight on the planet, wants a big fight with Anthony Joshua, but the reigning WBO champion is looking at other options in case a deal cannot be made for a unification clash.
And according to Australia’s Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne, Parker cold face him next, in March, in what would be a big deal over in that part of the world. Browne, who has suffered the ignominy of being labelled a drugs cheat not once but twice, has boxed once since returning from suspension, and he is now happy with the offer Parker has presented him with for the fight that would see Browne engage in his second world title fight.
Joseph Parker: The “Other” Heavyweight Champion
Just like the middle child or the last pick for the dodgeball game, WBO Heavyweight Champion Joseph Parker finds himself in a very precarious position as the forgotten heavyweight champion. Often overlooked, undervalued and disregarded, Joseph Parker is not as revered as his champion counterparts Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder. Even non titleholders such as Kubrat Pulev and Jarell Miller generate more buzz than Parker. With Joshua having defeated Carlos Takam by 10th round stoppage and Wilder set to rematch Bermane Stiverne on November 4th. The world is already beating the drums for a Wilder vs Joshua showdown. Both fighters seem to want the fight as well. However there is no real mention of Joseph Parker. His last fight was a majority decsion victory over Hughie Fury. What can Parker do to raise his profile and secure a big fight?
Team-Parker liked what they saw in Joshua-Takam battle, more convinced than ever Joseph beats AJ
It can often prove to be a tricky assignment facing a late replacement foe after having spent weeks training to prepare for another fighter with totally different physical dimensions coupled with a different fighting style, and WBA/IBF heavyweight ruler Anthony Joshua found this out last night in Cardiff.
Joshua got the job done in the end, winning practically every round before stopping (via terribly premature stoppage) a game Carlos Takam, but the critics have come out in force nonetheless. Expected by almost everyone to have a relatively easy time of things with Takam (who replaced an injured Kubrat Pulev) Joshua instead had to dig deep, take a few shots and find his second wind. As a result, the AJ critics have offered some harsh words.
If only – A Heavyweight WBSS Tournament
Fans are currently enjoying the exciting, the-best-fight-the-best, World Boxing Super Series tournament; or to be fully accurate, we are enjoying two ongoing WBSS tournaments; the one at cruiserweight as well as the one at super-middleweight.
So far, both eight-man elimination tourneys have gone smoothly and we have seen some great action fights along with some crunching knockouts – and the thrilling finals are still to come, in the first quarter of 2018.
Joseph Parker WM12 Hughie Fury has “No chance” of being overturned says WBO vice-president John Duggan
The arguments over this past Saturday night’s Joseph Parker-Hughie Fury fight are still ongoing; with the Fury family being, well, furious over the 12 round majority decision that went to defending WBO heavyweight champ Parker.
As soon as the verdict was announced in Manchester, the entire Fury family, along with their supporters and their promoter, went crazy – former heavyweight king Tyson Fury especially (even climbing into the ring, apparently to confront BBB of C head Robert Smith). There were suggestions of “corruption” and of “dark forces” being at work, and Fury and his team may well launch an official protest over the decision (114-114 and 118-110 twice, for Parker).
2017: A year of good fights, bad scoring
When the time comes and fight fans look back on 2017 as a whole, chances are pretty good they will feel the year was pretty good, overall. There are still some big fights to come in a year that has already seen its share of them, so things could get even better in terms of excellent action on display here in 2017.
However, one thing that has tarnished this year’s boxing calendar, is poor scoring by a number of judges. Of the great, good or big fights that have gone down this year – Jeff Horn-Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito-Carson Jones, Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez and Joseph Parker-Hughie Fury being standout examples, a number of them had one thing in common: hugely debatable, controversial score-cards.
Who next for Joseph Parker? Talks begin for Joshua unification fight
New Zealand’s Joseph Parker retained his WBO heavyweight title for the second time last night in Manchester, closely outpointing unbeaten mandatory challenger Hughie Fury via 12 round majority verdict. The result did not in any way please Team-Fury (more about that later) but Parker, who deserves credit for having agreed to fight in Manchester after the fight was originally postponed from May, in New Zealand, now looks ahead.