I appreciate there’s loads of threads but please indulge me doing the main one in the lead up to this Saturday. How do we see it going...does Parker have a chance or is he going to be another knockout victim. How does he beat AJ? Personally, i think it’s a big ask. I think the hype around Joshua has turned a lot of us boxing fans against him. Having to listen to people who only watch the sport occasionally bang on about how he’s an ATG. At the same time, I think that very hype has blinded us a little bit to just how good he is. He’s actually a very good boxer. He’s economical, every shot hurts...that uppercut is just beautiful when he executes it right. We can see the flaws in his game...I don’t think he moves his head enough, he’s a bit robotic, I don’t think he mixes the variety of his attack enough. It’s methodical, almost mechanical but it’s brutally affective. You can say he’s chinny but he took an enormous straight right from Klitschko and got back up. We can say he has stamina issues but he’s been to the 11th with Klitschko and the 10th with Takam, so taking him to deep waters hasn’t really worked out well yet. I can only see fighters with great feet and movement giving him a torrid time but we don’t know when Fury will come back. Anyway, i’ve rambled on enough.
Pretty much agree mate. Its actually pretty hard to judge who will do well against Joshua. Mainly because hes capable of blowing away anyone at the same time its never been about needing to be the very best to beat him. Just the right style/attributes. Joshuas powers pretty much got to everyone from early so far...even takam and whyte he pretty much drilled them both from early. And left klitchko in a bit of a heap the first time he put his punches together in the fifth. I m not looking into parkers granite chin talk too much. If he doesnt have anything to stop Joshua coming forward he,ll get battered about like the rest of them. The problem with that is it takes too much out of them for later in the fight. I still fancy parker to do well. I think he has got attributes that Joshua doesn't like. Still think Joshua's chins fragile. Not that he can't take a punch its that it takes him too long to recover from it. Always thought pushing him backs a good way to beat him. Get off first. And push him back. Whyte done it with a bit of success. And watching his amateur loss tonite was exactly the same the guy pushed him back. Hit him on the chin. And his stamina/legs went the same as we,ve seen before. Parkers capable to me...not because hes great...more because hes got good attributes for it. Fast hands. Can put his punches together. Good chin. And looks pretty mentally tough. Can fight on the front foot or the back foot. Needs to frustrate joshua. When he does attack he needs to get off first and go for it. Think Joshua's gonna try and box to start with. I think what will tell us a lot is if parker trys to box with him in the early going. For me its a mistake if he does. Joshua will catch him with something from the outside. Can see opponents thinking this is going well he,s not knocked me out yet. I,ll catch up with him later. Only to find out there is no later. Far too big/long not to catch him. Joe,s got to be ambitious. Get in and out. And push the fight. I think joshua would unravel. Think the tactics people are bringing against Joshua have been all wrong so far tbh. They,ve had him down as "a big robot...who will tyre...can't box". Only to find out he can box. He's explosive and he won't tyre unless he's dragged into a fight or gets hit on the chin with something big. The tactics should be get off first force him back...try to knock him out. The truth is Joshua's collosul. Hes hard to match for anyone in that division. But i,ll be surprised if that one big flaw doesn' eventually catch up with him. The chin leaves after effects for too long. The only one that should be boxing with him is fury imo. The guys that sit back on the backfoot end up getting hurt. Sorry for rambling mate. That's my two cents tho. Joshuas favorite but parker has a chance of the upset.
AJ via mid to late rounds stoppage. I'm rooting for Parker, but he is the weakest of the champions and i think he gets beat by AJ, Wilder, Povetkin, Ortiz etc.
Parker’s quicker jab is the only thing that makes this fight interesting It won’t be enough and AJ will stop him mid rounds
I have to go with AJ winning the UD and with the remote possibility of a late British stoppage. The main issue here for Parker to get the decision is fighting away from home, against a fighter he is outgunned by. Yes he is AJs second toughest fight, and yes Parker has beaten some elite HWs (Andy Ruiz Jr, Takam) but there is a big power gap here. The biggest strength that Parker has over AJ, are those Somoan and Pacific island genes (think Tua), meaning he has a rock solid structure and is very durable. I feel that AJs power and explosiveness will be the determing factor in this fight. Parker moves very well yes, but I think as the fight develops will be outworked by the bigger hitting man. On your final point, out of the current contenders who can beat AJ. I feel that Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder both beat AJ if either of those fights happen. AJ WUD12 Parker
I think this fight will be similar to Groves - Eubank. If Joshua stays disciplined, he will keep the fight at his range and win a wide UD, or by late stoppage. The way Parker and his team have been talking in the build up, it's clear to see that they view AJ aa having the speed of Valuev and the gas tank and chin of Price. They're going to find out the hard way how wrong they are.
I suspect Joshua will win this fight. At first I thought it would be a total mismatch, but it might have some exciting moments in it.................there are too many questions about both, really, but I can't see Parker having any chance against Joshua, Joshua is just too big for him. If Parker has the chin of Tua, which I have heard, then it will be a long night for Joshua..................I don't really know how that fight can last longer than 5 or 8 rounds, depends on how cautious Joshua will be, probably be cautious early.................if Parker were to win, it will be one of the biggest upsets in boxing history! I hope it will be an exciting fight and competitive, a mismatch will be such a disappointment.......................wonder if they will show Povetkin/Price? Wilder will not be at ringside, he is afraid, he will not fight Joshua, he will not fight Whyte, he will not fight Parker, would not fight an old Vlad and will not fight Povetkin Haymon made sure Wilder did not have to fight Povetkin, even after Povetkin was cleared by VADA..............Haymon owns the WBC! Haymon's referee gave Wilder extra time to recover in the OLD MAN ORTIZ fight, hell Ortiz' cousin in Cuba said that Ortiz was 59 years old, don't know about that, but several who know him said he was 50 or more...............Whatever, I will be surprised if Joshua/Parker fight will go the distance, but you never know, Parker might be better than we think.......................
I’ve not seen enough from Parker to suggest 1. He has enough to win 2. He has the power to KO AJ and 3. He hasn’t had a knockout since 2016, his last 3 fights have been a Unanimous and two Majority Decisions, can take that as positives that he’s gone 12 rounds three times, or the fact that he couldn’t land conclusively on Fury, Takam too his shots and so did Ruiz. Parker’s camp explained about his dual elbow surgery and that’s be more powerful and back to his best, that may be so but I’m skeptical to say the least, despite that it’s good to see Joesph lavishing in the experience of a big event, he looks excited and he may pull off the upset but I don’t predict he will. AJ will get the job done, facing some adversity from Parker but he will either get a TKO or a MD. I’m buying the PPV, some ale and probably a nice steak cooked by the missus so it’s gonna be a good night for me no matter who wins.
I actually think that Parker is a better version of Takam. So could very well go the distance, I thought Parker looked very lean at the presser so he will be far quicker and sharper than we have seen in recent fights. I wonder if this will affect his punch resistance. I do still think that AJ will get the win but certainly not gonna rule Parker out.
I was listening to the Pound 4 Pound pod, and they were talking about AJ having 29 main sponsors, and the obvious media obligations he has to fulfil with them. That’s some pressure that. I think this is going to be a cautious display by AJ. Which isn’t great cos with every round Parker will gain more belief and not be burning too much fuel. I think it’ll be a UD win for AJ.
Despite the Sky hype, this does look a mismatch to me. Parker never won the belt in the ring from the Champion Tyson Fury, I have not seen evidence of punch power and he certainly has next to no chance of winning on points as AJ is no Hughie' The Skirt' Fury running away all fight.
Just wanted to say, I’ve just watched the full Takam fight againand I really don’t get why people say it was a bad performance by Joshua, two minutes into the second round he takes a full on headbutt to the nose, accidental or not once it’s landed you can’t undo it so to have to box the next 6 rounds with either a broken nose or a very badly bruised and bleeding down the throat, that isn’t easy and can have an effect on ones stamina. Takam is as tough as they come it’s evident, what’s also evident is that when Joshua landed that shot that resulted in Takams eye gash he stops and tells the ref my eyes ****ed !? The ref asks does he want to continue and he’s just in a bit of a confused state, I’m not saying he didn’t want to continue because he is one tough SOB but he obviously wasn’t in good shape from then on, and to be fair to Joshua he absolutely out boxed and out landed Takam, landed some nice shots and kept himself composed, I also don’t see the dispute that it was an early stoppage, Takam himself stopped to notify the ref that his eyes mashed, the ref stopped it to let the doc have a look, you have to understand when the lights are on and the crowd is going wild and the fights on many things can happen, decisions have to be made on a seconds notice, I think when you look at how dominant Joshua was with him and how cut up he was, he got wobbled at least twice and the ref having the cuts and all the knowledge of what happened in the fight I don’t see it as a pathetic stoppage. Yeah sure you can argue it could’ve continued but the ref is there to protect the fighter and that’s what he did. I thought it was a calculated performance from Joshua considering he had a buggered nose, I just don’t agree that it was a terrible performance. Parker coming in lighter thinking he’s gonna do a Fury job on Joshua just isn’t going to happen the way he thinks it is in my opinion, you can’t stay on the outside the whole fight with a 76” reach and even if he tries to slip in and out and put together some speed combinations, Joshua will deal with those and close Parker down I believe, with him being lighter aswell I don’t see the power Parker thinks he has staying there with him. I will say though it’ll be interesting if Parker can find a way to back AJ up and unload some speed combos if the refs will actually stop it, does anyone think it could be a draw for a potential rematch ?
I think people are wrong believing parker doesn't have the power to get to Joshua. Parker can hit....people will say fury/takam/Ruiz to that but a lot of that is down to tactics/gameplans. The guys got Joe boxing to go the pace and see what comes of it. Bearing in mind they,ve already emphasized Joshua's chin as a big weakness. I,ll be surprised if the tactics doesn't involve throwing down on that chin at some point. Parker hits hard enough....but the real damage comes from it being hard to detect what's incoming due to having fast/sharp hands. As long as parker gets his tactics right I see him causing Joshua a lot more trouble that people are expecting. Parkers not the best heavyweight ever but unlike a lot of Joshua opponents he's a serious full time fighter in that hes training 3 times a day etc. I,d be surprised if Joshua blows him away. The only other guys that we,re in that bracket we,re klitchko and takam. Takam 36/37 with terrible preparation for it. And klitchko with a decent prep but 41 years old. Its too much for the older guys to match Joshua's very good athletism. Parker although outgunned should be able to hang in there long enough to start seeing cracks we,ve only really seen in small doses in Joshua.
A lot of people ALWAYS pick AJ to win by early KO. . . Always. But since he stepped up to Dillian Whyte class, he's only blown away Charles Martin (2 rounds) and Eric Molina (3 rounds) early. Whyte and Breazeale went in to 7th round (second half of fight), and old Klitschko and Takam went into the "late stages". I guess you could say this points towards AJ being "due" an early round win, OR you could suspect Parker is good enough to be the first to take AJ the distance. Depends how you look at it. I would not be at all surprised if Parker wins this fight. Also, I would't be surprised if he's blasted out. I wouldn't even be surprised if AJ is blasted out. It's heavyweight boxing. Parker's hard to judge right now. Admittedly he's looked dull and a mediocre in his last 3 fights, but injuries and styles coukd have been obscuring how good he is. Plus he's a young fighter and improving. Everyone knows Joshua's good, very good, but .... Just about every menacing heavyweight KO artist "invincible"-"bully"-type boxer in history has been defeated (usually KO'd) WAY BEFORE the so-called experts though they would. Often by a less menacing, less hyped and suppsedly less powerful underdog opponent.