Joseph Parker... a meaningless fight for Usyk?

In my opinion, Foreman throws every punch in the book better than Wilder. Wilder gets the power in that right by fully extending/telegraphing. Foreman can get you with those short punches that don't look like anything.

 

This, and I am a Kiwi/Samoan.

 

Pretty common Kiwi opinion actually. We got tall poppy syndrome bad, most people I know in real life have poo poo'd Parker from day 1.

And that's Parker being super humble, show a bit of confidence/cockiness and people will hate them, like Adesanya for example, so many Kiwis can't stand him.

 

Guarantee you if Parker didn't fight Bakole we'd be getting "Parker ducked short notice Bakole" too. There's no pleasing some people.

 

You could nitpick a lot to be fair, if you really put your mind to it—Wilder always being **** and somewhat shot, Zhang being a competitive fight in certain moments and Kabayel actually stopping him, Bakole being extremely short notice, notoriously unprepared, and essentially losing to Ajagba in his next fight. I think it's still a pretty great run tho. Parker is humble, actually kinda funny, worked his ass off for that rebuild, and arguably got ducked by Dubois already. I think he's earned it. I think he is a great addition to Usyk's resume. There is literally nobody else in the top ten that is better scalp than him and Kabayel, and adding to the depth of your victory list is a legacy, regardless of whether you were the betting favorite.

Parker, Kabayel, retire. Everybody else was already beaten by these two, or would very arguably lose to them.

 

This post got me thinking actually. We could trace who owns the "0" at heavyweight (the first person to defeat them) for all the significant fighters during this era. Based on the idea that possession of the "0" transfers. For example, Fury beat Wilder, so Usyk beating Fury transfers possession of the "0" for both Wilder and Fury.

Usyk currently holds the "0" for:
Fury, Chisora, Wilder, Ortiz, Povetkin, Pulev (through beating Fury)
Joshua, Ruiz, Parker, Whyte, Helenius, Breazeale (through beating Joshua)
Miller, Hrgovic, Zhang (through beating Dubois)

Parker holds the "0" for:
Joyce, Dubois (through beating Zhang)
Anderson (through beating Bakole)
Kownacki (through beating Wilder)

Kabayel holds the "0" for:
Mahkmudov (through beating Mahkmudov)
Sanchez, Ajagba (through beating Sanchez)

Winner of Hunter v Miller holds the "0" for:
Bakole, Kuzmin (through Hunter)

I think the above is correct, but I basically put it together off the top of my head in the last 10~15 minutes (with a few checks on BoxRec)

 

Boxing forum at its finest.

 

Do you think that this is because they miss David Tua? Kind of like Charles following Louis?

 

I like Parker, always have, even met him, top guy, he's had a very good career too, but to the post that I'm replying too, I agree with it.

 

Its just a NZ cultural thing, any New Zealander who succeeds has to be very humble or New Zealanders will criticise and dislike them, and even then a lot of Kiwis will try and bring them down.

For example we were talking boxing on a job site, pretty unusual in itself in NZ, but a lot of Samoans on the crew, and most guys agreed that Parker isn't that good and Fa would beat him. This was in the build up to the Hughie Fury fight, so Parker was an undefeated young champ.

 

Those people are clearly casuals then lol. Had the same at my work where people were coming up to me telling me that Fa would Knock Parker out. I laughed, and although Parker won in a stinker, they were shocked and couldn't believe that Parker won.

 

Yeah there isn't much of a boxing culture in NZ, most people are casuals, if even that.

Especially compared to the UK where I am now. I can talk to randoms who know way more about Parker and actually support him compared to people back home.

 

Yeah, people backing Fa, were just doing it to come across as different and make it look like they knew somethig about the sport, when anyone who remotely followed the sport could tell you that he was no good.

I'd describe him as a wish version of Kubrat Pulev style wise (which is a horrible thought on many fronts).

 

Fa had the tools to have more success than he did, but his heart wasn't in it.

Isn't he a vegan now because he doesn't like hurting animals or something? He is probably a bit too nice for the sport, same with Parker also tbf.

Fa's videos on YouTube are decent, and frankly it's nice to hear someone talking about boxing in a Kiwi accent.