Whyte Beating Parker was in hindsight a bigger upset than Ruiz Beating Joshua?

Big disagree. Joshua/Ruiz I was a genuine shocking upset at the time with a clear result. Whyte/Parker was a close if not controversial fight with shady ref work.

 

Parker was never so good. He's the most exaggerated boxer next to Joshua in boxing history. He will never become a champion. We all saw how ineffective he was against Joyce.

 

I remember this fight well and I've followed JP's career pretty closely. As far as this being an upset for the ages, there's a lot of context that needs to be laid out;

1) Parker came up looking the business through the rankings but once he stepped up he accrued uninspiring wins against Takam, Cojanu, Hughie Fury (despite revisionist bs, Parker won that fight clearly) and was fortunate to get the nod against Ruiz (though that was a true 50/50 and a draw would have been fair). So, a lot of the criticisms against Parker were already there by the time he faced Whyte. JP was also coming off a loss against AJ where Parker clearly coasted through that fight.

2) Parker had very quick handspeed for a HW but the counterweight to this is Kevin Barry. Kevin has a good boxing mind but as a coach he is open to criticism. As with Tua, he has a tendency to strip his fighters of their natural inclinations and turn them into conservative text book, basic combination fighters. His track record of handling championship level fighters is clear. Parker's handspeed was pretty much a non-entity in his fights post Takam

3) Parker was not the same fighter in 2018 that he is now under Andy Lee. In recent interviews, Parker has said he was massively over trained going into his previous fights. Parker has a clearly defined identity in the ring now, which was never there under his previous team.

4) Whyte was widely regarded as Top 5 and a viable contender at this time and moving into the form of his life. Post his AJ loss, he went on a 11 fight win streak with Chisora, Browne, Parker, Wach and Helenius all under his belt.

5) if you watch that fight, you will see how egregious the officiating (and even the commentary from Froch and Bellew) was in that fight. If the headbutt had not been ruled a knockdown and the fight played out exactly the same, the contest would have been ruled a draw. If Whyte had been correctly penalized for rabbit punching, leaning his weight in the clinch and holding onto the ropes when he was out on his feet, it would be a different story. Whyte got away with blind murder and Parker didn't have the ability or the where-with-all to impose himself back then. Instead he fought Whyte's backyard brawl kind of fight, and Whyte battered him. Despite all that, Parker was close to winning it at the death.

It's a fair result given the context of the fight and where both fighters were at in that stage of their careers.

For all it's faults, it was a great main event on a great card. People should definitely check it out if you haven't seen it, as well as Chisora v Takam on the undercard which was a classic phone booth slug fest.

 

What's that? Parker the most exaggerated fighter next to anyone? How? Noone ever thought he was on top. Even when he fought Joshua he was only a prospect and rightfully so. There are hundreds of fighters more hyped und more undeserving of the hype. How can you name joshua and parker and leave out wilder for just the most blatant example?

And right now everyone ranks him below usyk at 2-4, which is absolutely right with the current landscape and the recent performances...

 

Spot on, great post - Parker seems a different animal under Andy Lee!

 

People forget Parker took the fight on 8 weeks notice and with fair officiating would have stopped Whyte in the final round but the ref bottled it.

 

Parkers been a mixed bag, he first became relevant as a champ before he'd even hit his prime...

Are both Parker and Joshua exaggerated? Sometimes a bit, but they're still solid legit contenders with the resumes to match.

The idea that either features amongst the most exaggerated of all time when they're nowhere near as exaggerated as other fighters within the same era (especially Wilder and Ortiz) seems rather odd to me...

I guess the internet era breeds hype narratives like the past couldn't, but I think there are better criticisms available.

 

Yea... Ruiz was basically a fringe contender and Joshua by far the standout fighter of the division at the time, where both Parker and Whyte were solid legits and at times inconsistent.

Ruiz beating Joshua was a far bigger shock.

 

Ruiz beating AJ was the biggest HW upset of all time. Maybe the biggest boxing upset of all time.
Don't let the post-loss propaganda fool you. Ruiz was never a top fighter. He didn't have more experience, just more am fights at lower levels. His pro record was old/shot fighters and cans. After that win he returned to beating old/shot fighters. He was also in on short notice.
The size difference alone was unbelievable. The power difference. The reach difference. The fat difference. The 'Big-time Boxing' experience.
Every single advantage was with AJ.
That's how Matchroom like it.
Still, AJ got TKO'd while taking over Murica.
An event like that won't repeat. And it will live on forever!

 

Whyte was quite highly regarded at the time, he was seen as a serious contender and going into the Parker fight it was a 50/50 fight. The result was somewhat controversial and Whyte got a bit lucky with his 'first knockdown' which was a headbutt.

AJ then was the unified champion, and was incredibly marketable - he was probably the UK's number one athlete. Joshua's fight against Ruiz wasn't just a tune up. It was basically a show event to introduce AJ to America - well that didn't go to plan. Ruiz was like 20/1 to win with AJ at 1/30 or so.

In hind-sight I disagree that Whyte V Parker is a bigger upset then AJ V Ruiz. Don't forget like Whyte, Parker had some very close tough fights against Chisora.

 

Bigger than Tokyo Douglas? Nah!

 

Whyte "won" via headbutt.

Ruiz won by punching Joshua until he quit.

 

Nah
Few gave Ruiz a chance, fat out of shape, fast hands but not considered a puncher.
AJ, built like a tank, good power on a decent run of wins.
Dropped Ruiz early, got caught never recovered.... Unbelievable win for Ruiz a huge shock to many

Whyte V Parker was a battle of the also-rans. Whyte was smashed up in 7 by AJ, Parker lost on points in a dull, passive performance.
Parkers late resurgence has been excellent, while Whyte blew his chances and turned in an awful performance V Fur,y and it looks a long way back for him now. At the time, Whyte was favoured and squaked by a decent fighter to win. If Parker had won, no one would have been overly surprised. Whyte has plenty of obvious flaws.