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Sports correspondent & historian with |
For the majority of Joseph Parker’s time in professional boxing he has been involved in fights that have been labeled “must win” or “career defining” contests.
In two weeks’ time, Parker, will take part in a contest that could propel the South Auckland born pugilist into the ring with the best heavyweight on the planet today.
On Sunday morning, October 25 (NZ time), Joseph Parker will square off with unbeaten Brit Fabio Wardley, with the winner scheduled to meet Oleksandr Usyk for the WBO version of his unified world titles.
Parker, along with the likes of David Tua, Shane Cameron, Junior Fa and David Nyika, learnt his early boxing craft in the Boxing New Zealand amateur ranks.
Parker’s love of the fight game was instilled in him by his father, Dempsey, who was named after American world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.
At 10, Parker joined the Papatoetoe Boxing Club, where he was mentored by Grant Arkle and former Commonwealth professional champion Manny Santos.
He made his New Zealand amateur representative debut at just 16 years of age. In his relatively short amateur international career, he won Arafura gold in Darwin, silver in the Youth Olympics and Commonwealth Championships, along with a bronze medal at the Youth World titles.
Parker turned to the professional ranks in 2012 at just 20 years of age. His first big test came in his fifth fight, when he beat former IBF heavyweight titleholder Francois Botha, who was on the descent after meeting boxers such as Mike Tyson in ring combat.
At just 24, Parker defeated Mexican-American Andy Ruiz for the WBO World heavyweight title.
After two title defences, Parker surrendered his WBO strap to Anthony Joshua in 2018.
The Kiwi boxer suffered two hiccups on the road to redemption after his title loss.
Defeats inflicted by fellow heavyweight contenders Dillian Whyte and Joe Joyce saw Joseph at a big crossroads.
He was then matched with knockout artist Deontay Wilder, who had been involved in three brawls with Tyson Fury.
While some commentators said Wilder was far from his prime, Joseph Parker impressed in earning a unanimous decision in the now fight capital of the world of Saudi Arabia.
Parker followed this up with a hard-fought majority decision against Chinese man-mountain Zhilei Zhang in March 2024.
(I always smile a little when I remember that the Kiwi hero won the WBO interim heavyweight title after he beat Zhilei Zhang. In my opinion, an interim title is just another made-up crown so the promoters can squeeze more money out of the boxing fans.)
From then on, the other genuine heavyweight contenders avoided him like the plague, with Parker having just one fight in the last 18 months.
It is interesting to compare the credentials of the two boxers who will headline the O2 card in London.
Joseph Parker will enter the ring as an experienced campaigner who has fought his way back into heavyweight title contention.
By comparison, Fabio Wardley is where Parker was entering his title fight with Ruiz.
At 19-0-1, Wardley is regarded as a knockout king – with just two of his 20 fights going the distance. Wardley needs to make a statement of his own if he wants to announce his arrival as one of the big boys in the heavyweight division.
My prediction is that Parker will stop his opponent in one of the late rounds (10-12) of the fight.