Anthony Oluwafemi Joshua vs. Joseph Dennis Parker - THE *OFFICIAL* POLL

27 of 39 men faced?

 

Oh come on. Joshua isn't half as skilled as Lewis, nor Parker a tenth as crude as Tua.

 

WTF...all full-length uploads of The Gloves Are Off have been scrubbed from the net?

What is Sky thinking? All well and fine to want to restrict On Demand content access to just paying subscribers but they do realize this fight has attracted interest beyond their domestic borders, yes? Surely they can put it up for the international audience (who don't even have the option to be paying Sky customers) but have that free version blacked out regionally within the UK to encourage fans at home to subscribe?

 

I think perhaps the all-too-common urge to judge fighters by their most recent appearance might be, counter-intuitive though it might sound, relatively useless in analyzing this one. In this case the most germane and informative supply of fettle & praxis may in fact be each man's respective penultimate bouts.

Joshua to say the least didn't turn in his best performance versus Takam; likewise Parker (through little fault of his own) constituted one half of a ghastly waltz through a mare's nest with Hughie Fury. In the RBR threads for both fights people were saying that each of them had been "exposed".

Joshua may have lost more rounds versus Klitschko but it was certainly the more creditable and stock-raising performance. Likewise for Parker, he only squeaked by Ruiz Jr. on the cards but it was a better fight to watch and he was confronted with - and overcame - more genuine adversity (rather than just time-wasting negativity) by Ruiz than Parker.

This pair of championship matches, then, is what ought to be scrutinized most closely, as it contains the pinnacle of achievement for both combatants - their finest opponents to date, prior to meeting each other, and the most important nights of their career so far. The dalliances with Takam & Fury (and Cojanu...somehow I keep forgetting about that random *******) were all well and fine to keep our two unbeaten champions free of rust en route to next week's unification showdown, but they really won't tell you much insofar as picking the outcome. Parker isn't very Carlos Takam-like, nor is Joshua inclined to nor capable of pulling the shenanigans Hughie Fury did. Here, in parallel, are their best 12-round efforts to date, from which to glean some perspicacity ahead of March 31st.

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What?

Anybody whose attention span is too short to register whose names are in a title because they're rendered in full (with first, middle if applicable, then last) is too stupid to have an opinion worth contributing anyway. Surely you're not disputing that?