How UK heavyweight plans to rock Aussie boxing \u2014 twice<\/a><\/p>\nJoseph Parker fights this weekend. (Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to Wardley\u2019s power, you can only go off the numbers,\u201d the Kiwi shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd at the moment, his knockout ratio is high.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you examine his career, if you look at who he\u2019s fought, the guys he\u2019s knocked out \u2013 he hasn\u2019t knocked out a lot of top 10 fighters.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is the perfect opportunity for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can showcase whether he does have the power to knock out someone in the top 10, like myself. Or is it just a myth?<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it just one of those things. <\/p>\n
\u201cHas he been fighting these guys at the right time? These other fighters who aren\u2019t highly ranked?\u201d<\/p>\n
So as for being concerned about that Right Hand from the Gods?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worried at all,\u201d Parker stressed. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not me being arrogant, but confident.<\/p>\n
\u201cConfident in my sparring, in my padwork, confident in the way my body looks, the way I feel, and coming into a fight week with no injuries, no niggles, no worries.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there is nothing to be nervous or scared about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in the ring with so many heavy hitters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd some fights I\u2019ve done well, while in three, I\u2019ve lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is nothing new to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd why I do have confidence in my ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m only coming into my prime now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWardley\u2019s fighting me at the wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley pose for a photo before facing off. (Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Parker also heaped praise on Opetaia, who has already revealed plans to make a move up to the lucrative heavyweight division after unifying all four cruiserweight straps.<\/p>\n
So far, the push to undisputed has been an agonisingly slow one for the Central Coast product, with Parker wondering aloud what more the big punching southpaw must do.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Jai wants all these fights with the champs,\u201d he said, \u201cbut they\u2019re not giving it to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat more can he do? What more can he say?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many call outs can he give before getting these big fights?<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, Jai is absolutely relentless in his pursuit of greatness.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I feel that if he does unify, by all means come up to heavyweight and try to do the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a man who is serious about his work.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you can see when he puts in that work, he\u2019s a beast.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou watch his fights, you can feel the electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy is on the attack the whole time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great talent, a great representative of Australia and Samoa and I\u2019m backing him all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
So as for the pair of them one day throwing down?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can never say never,\u201d Parker grinned. \u201cBut before we talk about fighting, we have to have a competition in fishing.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Laughs) Jai thinks he\u2019s a better fisherman than me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I believe I\u2019m better than him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019ll be the first contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we\u2019ll see what happens from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fabio Wardley punches Justis Huni. (Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Parker also heaped praise on Huni\u2019s most recent performance against Wardley, with the Queenslander ahead easily on all three scorecards when caught by a massive right hand in Round 10.<\/p>\n
Initially afterwards, Huni\u2019s manager Mick Francis also expressed dismay and how quickly his client had been counted out by the officiating referee, with Parker also convinced the Aussie could have fought on.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst Fabio Wardley, Justis Huni put up a terrific performance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore that right hand in the tenth, it was all Huni\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustis was putting on a perfect performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooked sensational.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re watching thinking \u2018man, he is going to win this \u2026 [he\u2019s] putting on a clinic\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen one punch changes everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd even then, Justis got up.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he beat the count?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure, If they\u2019d let him go on he would\u2019ve. Found something in him to carry on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it got waved off.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd even then he showed true sportsmanship in accepting the loss, saying the better man won.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Justis Huni will be back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a really big future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referee John Latham counts down Justis Huni after being knocked down by Fabio Wardley. (Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
While the winner of Sunday\u2019s fight will become mandatory for Usyk, there remains talks of the champ vacating at least the WBO belt to instead chase a lucrative trilogy bout with Fury.<\/p>\n
So as for Parker being OK to win his second world title in such fashion?<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting elevated to world champion — that isn\u2019t how you want to do it,\u201d he conceded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always want to earn something.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it still makes you champion of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cGives you more bargaining power.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd say Usyk does vacate a belt. If I then have a defence, and win, then I can have the unification.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it still opens up all sorts of possibilities. All these things to look forward to.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut none of it matters unless I take care of business this weekend and smash him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Parker continued: \u201cA lot of people are saying the winner of this weekend\u2019s fight is then in line to fight Usyk, which is all well and good.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut none of them have control over Usyk.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019ve heard all this before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was next in line, waiting for my time.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s why I\u2019m not really fussed about \u2018oh, Usyk is next\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it would be good to fight him. A generational great. A guy who has achieved so much unifying the cruiserweight division, then unifying the heavyweight division.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the championship of the world, that\u2019s still the end goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for now I just want to smash everyone in front of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cLine them up, I\u2019ll do my best to smash them and onto the next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joseph Parker has revealed the one caveat standing between himself and a blockbuster heavyweight showdown with Australia\u2019s Jai…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-234170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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