His gormless smiling during a fight and mr nice guy approach is harming him. He needs to separate from those bums in australia/NZ and move to a proper camp who'll get him in real shape and tighten his skills. Like the ingles or peter fury. I think the headbutt knockdown did mess him up last night though and I reckon he'd beat DW in a rematch.
If the headbutt knockdown did all that he needs to retire ASAP. Couldn't deal with the body shots and was actually helped by getting knocked down the second time as Whyte then went for the head.
He is just ignorant. That is his natural personality. Kinda like the guy that never 'gets it'. A shame really because he has bombs in those hands and a great chin but the IQ of Forrest Gump.
He's just not top level that's all. I think honestly that he's lucky to have won a title in the first place, however from what I've seen of him he seems a very nice, well grounded man and that in itself is an accomplishment in today's world.
Too nice and Too stupid. Anyone can see that Dave Higgins is a conman and you are giving 35% of your purse to him? He has not moved on at all or developed as a fighter. He is extremely predictable. You cannot be predictable and not develop new skills and win fights at the elite level.
He just looks like a guy who has got through his whole career doing the exact same thing over and over again, always worked why change. But as soon as the quality stepped up a notch hes began to struggle but they seem to stick to doing the exact same thing. Sure Barry has been clever and told him to do it a bit slower or mix it up a bit more and do it a bit quicker but its just the same thing. Kevin Barry isnt a mug of a coach but he isnt getting Parker to do anything else. Is it because he knows he cant, he can do one thing and can do it really well? We can all see the natural speed and power of Parker but those things in such a raw form will only get you so far. It did get him a world title i suppose.
Not sure he's too nice, but he didn't seem gutted enough after losing last night. Yeah he poured it on in the last round but did winning mean as much to him as it did to Whyte? I don't think so....
Yes, he is too nice, too much of a gent in the ring, he wanted to touch gloves at the end of rounds, tried giving Whyte a little tap on the arm at the end of rounds. It's all good being a gent before the fight, I like that, it's a good look but during the fight he needs more devil, more spite, more savage. I actually think the knockdown in round two had an effect on Parker, last night I was thinking a bad concussion because he looked dazed for a few rounds but today.. I'm starting to lean towards a confidence issue, I'm not sure Parker knew it was a headbutt, he didn't complain, he didn't make any gesture towards the head to the referee. I think he was just completely shocked he went down, it took away something from him, so maybe it was just confidence, he went backwards after that and didn't commit. Parker is 26 years old, he can come again but I think he might need to change a few things, I'm not convinced by his corner, I'm not sure what he does in the gym and what sort of sparring he gets but it hasn't worked in his last two fights and that is something he might have to consider changing.
He needs to reinvent himself. He took all the blame at the post fight presser, heaping praise on his team, but saying he should have listened more, and they let him. I think he needs to part ways for any major changes to take hold. His inside game was poor. I think the Joshua ref did him a favour in hindsight.
I agree, Barry has taken him as far as he can and, in many ways, that was the case when he won the title and Parker has regressed since then, especially his conditioning. A fresh start and a new voice might be exactly what he needs. He has the building blocks to be much better than he is....
Agreed. I’ve got no problems with a fighter refining the skills that they already have, but sometimes they simply need to add new strings to their bow.
He doesn't have the fighter's hunger. He has heart and will take punishment but he doesn't have the desire to win of a true elite professional. The way he boxed against Joshua for 12 rounds is not the way you should fight if you want to win the world title. Same story versus Whyte for the first 11 rounds. There's no urgency or care in his fighting.