Joseph Parker is picking his friend, Tyson Fury, to defeat WBA/WBC/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch in nine days on December 21, live on DAZN.
Parker believes Fury’s “mindset has changed” since his defeat against Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) earlier this year. He feels that Fury can win a decision in their rematch. According to Parker, their previous fight was a “back-and-forth” job. It doesn’t look like Fury’s mindset has changed. He just looks like he packed on a bunch of weight, hoping to lean on Usyk all night like he did in fights against Deontay Wilder.
It was a seesaw battle, but it didn’t flip back and forth like Parker says. Once Usyk took over in the eighth, he never looked back and had Fury done in the ninth. That’s when the fight should have ended if not for the meddling referee, who got in the way of Usyk knocking out Fury.
The WBO interim heavyweight champion Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) says he wants to fight the Fury-Usyk 2 winner. However, he still has a big job ahead of him in his fight against IBF champion Daniel Dubois on February 22nd, and he’s not expected to win. Dubois is on another level than Parker, and this one has early knocking written all over it.
Fury’s Changed Mindset?
“I feel like the first fight was very back and forth,” Joseph Parker told DAZN about the first fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury on May 18th. “I think Tyson’s mindset has changed coming into this fight.
“I believe Tyson can beat Usyk on a points decision, but it’s a tough one. I’m siding with Tyson, but it’s a points decision. I would love [to challenge the Fury-Usyk 2 winner]. If the winner of this fight can meet the winner of [my battle against Daniel Dubois], let’s make it happen,” said Parker.
Parker has got it wrong. Fury’s best chance of beating Usyk is by knockout, not by decision. Apart from controversial scoring, there’s no way Fury can beat Usyk by a decision. He doesn’t possess the skills, mobility, or the youth to win a decision. Fury is an old 36, and he won’t be able to outbox Usyk by hanging on the ropes, looking to maul. He attempted to do that last time, but Usyk picked him apart.
As far as Parker goes. If he defeats Dubois, a rematch with him would make sense because that’s one that would pay. Again, it’s highly unlikely that Parker will get the W against Dubois. He was VERY lucky to be given a 12-round majority decision win against Zhilei Zhang on March 8th.
In that fight, Zhang dropped Parker twice and appeared to win six of the twelve rounds. That should have been enough for Zhang to be given the decision, but the judges went with the A-side fighter, Parker.
