Joseph Parker... a meaningless fight for Usyk?

I mean, to be fair, you could say the same about Wilder - was never very good and dodged the world until he was 34 (Fury #2 - the first time he knowingly fought a real contender, with the first bout being a cherry pick of a fat gypsy he understandably thought was shot).

End of the day, though, these are still better wins than an even older Zhang was for Kabayel and Wilder, overrated though he was and still is, was still miles better than Makh and Sanchez.


It's true Parker has a blotted copy book - but it's not as if he's not still very clearly the most proven of the rest.

And as far as legacy goes, he has more value than untested prospects like Itauma or guys with thin resumes and a history of wasting years on bums like Kabayel does.

And it's fair to say that Parker does by far the most of who's available to help pad things out and avoid future accusations of a thin resume, IMHO.

 

Are you still coming over later to my mom's house? We're gonna have ham and cheese popkins with garden-fresh tomato and chive soup and watch scary movies. Please say you are still coming.

 

Parker hasn’t really improved.

he beat Zhang who is there to be taken if you can go past 5 rounds, Parker has a very good chin so it was a favourable fight for him if he avoided being KOed.

Wilder was always heavily overrated and was already washed by the time they fought.

Bakole came in at like 20 hours notice being completely out of shape.

Let’s remember he got dominated and brutally knocked out by Joyce just before his “excellent” run

 

I agree with most of this but I think the Zhang win was good. It's definitely a smoke and mirrors run though.

 

Imagine wanting to see the champion defend against as many different challengers as possible.

 

Usyk is clearly a big favourite but Parker is deservedly the best of the rest (then Kabayal) so it's a worthy fight.

 

It's the responsibility of the champion to defend his belts against all worthy challengers who has earn the right to fight for the belts.

Parker is a worthy challenger.

 

Joseph Parker is a solid top heavyweight contender and deserves the undisputed title fight.

He's better than Dubois (who ducked him). Parker is an intelligent boxer who would provide a better challenge to Usyk.

And as a former world titleholder, he would be a good name to add to Usyk's resume.

 

Parker and Kabayel both earned their top spot, and are worthy challengers. As was Dubois, he had a really good run before the Usyk rematch.

 

As much as I see his three wins in a similar light (though I think zhang was a good opponent, just didn't think parker proved himself in there a lot for a usyk fight) I also have to say that probably strategic errors and a very bad style matchup for parker contributed to that loss. Parker landed lots of bombs that didn't do anything to Joyce and later he lost because he was exhausted from having bulked up against pressure machine joyce. Nothing there speaks against him as Usyks opponent as well as little works for him from his last three fights

 

Considering the legacy question i would say both parker and kabayel do a lot for usyk. If he beats both as his next two opponents and then leaves boxing, both of them easily snatch up a belt ant keep it for two or three fights. Then maybe even unification if the next thing hasn't come up the ranks yet.

If they do ok in losing the belts, they will have made 5 out of formerly 3 relevant opponents in heavyweight for usyk.

As we already see, the low number opponents will be the main thing held against him in a historic context.

 

A fighter does not need to be legacy defining or the best in the division to be an improvement to your record.

 

Parker is a bum dosser

Lets be honest. Usyk boxes his face off and even the people begging for him to get given this title shot will be whining.

Let Parker attempt to chin over the bodybuilding bum. At best let Kabayel have a shot at Usyk and he gets boxed up the same way with maybe the odd good round.

The truth nobody wants to admit is they all secretely lust for Fury Usyk III. Shame Fury is in such denial about his losses really and it's the main reason I wouldn't expect him to win a trilogy plus wear and tear, probably gets stopped barring a miracle level performance.

 

The difference is...

Parker already brings legacy value as a former world champion, long term contender and also well proven to come back from setbacks to work his way back up again.

Kabayel is different - not only has he never even been in a title fight, he's only actually fought one consensus contender (and even then, Zhang is both old enough to be father time's grandpappy AND has a very mixed record against anyone remotely good), the definitive gatekeeper, a couple of hypejobs not proven to be anything beyond journeymen and a carousel of bums that even peak Wilder wouldn't think were worth fighting.
And on top of that... Not only has he got a mega thin resume, but he has previously hit a career high and then wasted years and years afterwards - who's to say he'll actually WANT to build a resume this time around?


If all you say actually happens, sure, it'd turn out to be a good legacy win... But after Kabayel lost to Usyk, if he then lost again or fought nobodies for a while he could easily fall off the face of the map - and what legacy value does he have then? Very, very little, IMHO.

Sure, you can say Usyk could/should fight him just in case he goes on to do something - and when there aren't any better options maybe he will... But Parker IS that much better option, at least first in line.


And you're right that the low number of opponents on Usyks resume will probably be held against him in the long run, at least when ranking the ATG's... It probably would even with both Parker and Kabayel on there, too.
It's just interesting that the extremely low number of worthy opponents on Kabayel's resume sometimes seems to get ignored when making the case for him to be anywhere near first in line.