Heavyweight March: Anthony Joshua v Joseph Parker Analysis and Prediction

Boxingnews24.com

By Harry Rowland –

I can’t remember the last time us boxing fans were so spoilt for heavyweight action within the space of one month. By the end of March we will have witnessed four match ups involving six top ten heavyweights, seven if you considered Lucas Browne in the top ten. Four of these fighters were atop of almost anyone’s list, and four undefeated.

It kicked off on 3rd March with WBC champion Deontay Wilder administering an exciting knockout of dangerous Cuban Luis Ortiz in a voluntary defence. Followed by Dyllian Whyte knocking out Australian powerhouse Browne in devastating fashion on the 24th. Finally this Saturday 31st Anthony Joshua takes on fellow champion Joseph Parker, with Alexander Povetkin versus Liverpool’s David Price on the undercard.

Russian favourite Povetkin is the WBA intercontinental and WBO international champion, which roughly translated means he is likely to become the winners next mandatory challenger. This is the purpose of his appearance on the show, up against a well known Brit. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to drum up a taste for the fight should it have to happen later this year.

Price is well known to UK fans for his failures rather than his accomplishments, having lost by knockout each of the four times he has dipped his toe into world-class waters. Sadly it’s hard to see any other outcome here, as Povetkin is an experienced and dangerous operator, widely considered to be in the top five.

When you have a fighter who brings the kind of financial leverage to proceedings that Anthony Joshua does, coupled with the ability and belief he can beat them all; things tend to fall into place very quickly regarding the four major title belts. If you look back to when Mike Tyson started collecting the belts in the late 1980s, from when he won the WBC title against Trevor Berbick in 1986, it only took him three more fights and eight and a half months to add the WBA and IBF (all three major titles available at the time). Since the formation of the WBO later in 1988, and if you count the even more recent IBO established 1992, it now makes unifying a lot harder.

After Tyson passed the three belts over to James Douglas in 1990 as a complete set, they then transfered to Evander Holyfield in Douglas’ very next outing. Holyfield eventually lost them to Riddick Bowe in 1992 and they again became fragmented when Bowe decided to relinquish the WBC title soon after. They remained that way until 1999 when Lennox Lewis managed to unify them during his second title reign.

Starting in 1997 Lewis unified the same three belts over two and three quarter years and seven fights in total. The WBO was still not widely recognised and the IBO was pretty much unheard of. Whilst not standing up to Tyson’s timely record, it is still very impressive when you consider Wladimir Klitchsko had to wait nearly six years between beating Samuel Peter in 2005 and Unifying with David Haye in 2011 to be the next person to complete set of three of the four major belts.

IBF/WBO/IBO Heavyweight champion Joshua 20-0 (20 KO) aims to unify his titles against the fellow unbeaten WBO belt holder Parker 24-0 (18 KO). If successful he will be the fourth to have gathered three of the four major titles rather than being handed them in one fight, doing so in just shy of two years and 6 fights whilst also obtaining the less recognised IBO along the way.

Commonly referred to as alphabet soup, the many titles aren’t the be all and end all of the sport, it is even sometimes wise to ignore them altogether when assessing who is the number one of any division. But the clearest way to prove supremacy is to collect all the belts, as proven by Tyson, Lewis and Klitschko’s lasting legacy’s.

Such is Joshua’s popularity in the UK he now needs a venue big enough to house 80,000 fans each time he fights, seemingly no matter who the challenger. Having beaten Klitschko at Wembley stadium London, in front of a modern day record crowd of 90,000. Both appearances since have had to take place at Cardiff’s Principality stadium in Wales, due to having a roof to accommodate Britains winter climate.

This fight is a necessary matchup in the division, not because of the spectacle it presents but more to tidy things up. Since Tyson Fury’s unexpected win over Wladimir Klitchsko in 2015, the belts have splintered and this is the penultimate matchup before one last contest will truly unify the glamor division.

Anything but a draw will actually restore the alphabet titles to exactly where they were before Klitchsko was toppled, with the remaining WBC title still in the hands of Wilder. Joshua versus Wilder is at the top of people’s wish lists, especially now that Wilder has proved he belongs to be recognised as number two in the division beating Ortiz. This doesn’t mean he will be the toughest fight, it just means that Wilder is perceived to be the biggest threat and therefore creates the biggest interest. Looking at the current crop of heavyweights, Wilder is by far the favourite to topple the recognised number one.

But we must take it one fight at a time, and this one isn’t a bad one, although not many give Parker more than a punchers chance of victory, and why would they? He comes up second best not just physically but in nearly every aspect. He is fighting in Joshua’s backyard, he has less experience of world class opposition, he has the lesser amateur pedigree, and he’s had a number of questionable performances of late. His only advantage on paper is a slight two year age advantage at 26.

New Zealander Parker is the first in his country to win a bonafied Heavyweight title, be it a vacant one. This is a huge achievement, not only for his home country but also of his parents home country Samoa. Not even neighbouring giant Australia has managed such a feat. Parker is already a sporting hero in his home nations, but a win here would catapult him into worldwide renown.

A good sized heavyweight at 6ft 4inches and 245lbs, Parker has a great work rate and always turns up ready to fight. His motivation and discipline are where they need to be and he would have beaten a lot of heavyweight belt holders of the past. Unfortunately it’s unlikely he has the size and perhaps the ability to overcome the Olympic champion Joshua as this stage.

Carlos Takam is a recent common opponent of both and on paper Parker doesn’t come off well, taking a unanimous decision in a fight that could have gone either way. Despite Joshua’s critics, he demonstrated complete dominance over Takam, dropping and stopping him over ten one sided rounds. Yes the referee could have let it run on, but his face was beginning to bleed and swell grotesquely which suggests it’s time to save the warrior from himself. Both fighters were tiring at the time of the stoppage, but it is absurd to assume that Joshua was in any more danger of gassing out, as protested by team Takam.

Much has been made of Parker’s speed of hand and foot, but he wasn’t able to use this to great affect in his last performance against the workman like tactics of Hughie Fury. The cousin of Tyson Fury used timing and footwork to neutralise Parker’s assets. Team Parker acknowledge that recent performances haven’t lived up to the promise shown in the early stages of his career, before he stepped up to challenge Andy Ruiz for the title. Parker has scraped by his last three opponents on the scorecards, two by majority decision, where one judge see’s it a draw.

When the two men meet in the centre of the ring the first thing that will become apparent is the size difference, with The Watford man utilising all of his two inch height, 9lb weight and six inch reach advantage. Parker has a very similar style and build to Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev, the man Joshua was supposed to face in his last fight before injury scuppered the contest. Both have a stocky frame and fight on their toes, producing dynamic movement while putting together fast combinations of punches.

Parker’s best chance will be to utilise these skills, while keeping low and in close. There is a chance Joshua will be looking a little too hard to impress after receiveing critisim his last performance was too laboured. This could work in his opponents favour should he start to puff as the fight wears on as he did against Klitchsko. But it is all too likely Joshua will have too much of everything for Parker to even make it to the final bell.

It is not impossible for Parker to put on a defensive display and go the distance for a wide points loss, or even catch the favourite with a lucky punch and take him out. But any chance of him slowly breaking his man down and taking a points or late stoppage win from an accumulation of shots is out of the question.

I see the favourite with the 100% knockout ratio blasting his way through a game but overmatched adversary by the mid to late rounds. Joshua should be able to keep Parker at a safe distance with the jab, without using up too much energy. Once Parker starts to tire and frustration sets in, it will be time to let the heavy shots go.

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