"Ben Shalom confirms Joseph Parker will be in action in September, and says Joe Joyce, Deontay Wilder, Dillian Whyte, Otto Wallin and Jermaine Franklin are all potential opponents." What the absolute f*ck. Jermaine Franklin (who Whyte also called out after "avenging" his defeat against the corpse of Povetkin) is a disgracefully bad opponent who got a [url]BS decision[/url] against Jerry Forrest and went the 10 round distance with glass chinned journeyman Pavel Sour, who Hughie, Gorman and Kabayel put away in 3, 2 and 1 respectively. Franklin has completed just 4 full rounds (against a low level journeyman) since October 2019, so he may well have regressed as a fighter since going the distance with Sour. Why is this inactive unknown glorified journeyman's name even being mentioned as a potential Parker opponent for September?
Parker was done at the elite level after Joshua. I said it then, I'm saying it now. He lost his heart for the sport due to the incompetent referee.
I mean potentially I could win the lottery, be gifted 50 million dollars from an unknown benefactor, be chosen to be the lead role in the next Marvel movie, get a job at McDonalds. My followup question for Ben would be "have negotiations started yet between any of these fighters and Parker or are you " potentially " going to start negotiations?"
Wilder, Wallin, Whyte, Joyce, all interesting matches. Parker fans have an exciting year ahead, for sure. Credit to Parker for considering fighting Wilder too. It's going to be hard to choose between all these exciting options. Ben Shalom reminds me of a young Bob Arum. I think he's going to follow in Bob's footsteps and be a positive force for boxing.
Forget about Joyce, Shalom's just putting his name into the mix to save face on behalf of his new signing. That fight was supposed to be taking place this weekend. It was good to go, then it suddenly wasn't, and not on Joe Joyce's account. I'd guess Wilder's name is only in there for looks, since we have no clear idea of when Deontay will return yet. I'd still take a Whyte-Parker II, but Parker-Wallin interests me more at this point.
Wallin and Franklin are ridiculously low level opposition to be considered. Wilder is very easy fight for Parker but unrealistic one unless Haymon wants to cash in Wilder and feed him to Parker for an extortionate amount of money. Whyte and Joyce are levels above the others mentioned and the level of opponents that Parker should be looking to fight.
Browne has offers for Parker and mcKean on the Matchroom Oz show. The Parker fight was a bigger offer so far but it’s embarrassing for Sky to put on. move heard a rumour the Sky September card is shields vs Marshall, Meyer vs Baumgartner and Parker vs Browne. What kind of tickets that sells in the UK is mind blowing