June 29th in Providence, RI. Leapai replaces originally scheduled opponent Éric Lee "The Drummer Boy" Molina. A clash of Samoan-heritage titans...Aussie vs. Kiwi, experience versus youth (Leapai is thirteen years older than Parker) Joe is making his first ring appearance of 2019, after going 1-2 last year and seeing his zero go up in smoke. Alex is almost six years removed from his shining career pinnacle, an upset of Denis Boytsov (then a 33-0 prospect/contender) and is 2-3-1 since then.
I don't even remember seeing Leapai fight since the Wlad fight and had to go box rec to see that he was actually still somewhat active. Does he even have anything left? I mean I don't think this will serve Parker other than being another confidence booster and getting the first fight this year under his belt.
Parker will clobber Leapai to a stoppage within 6 rounds. He should look to fight again soon after , maybe even get another one in by the end of the year. Fury says he has two more dates this year after Schwartz.
After Kevin Johnson vs Gorman fight Johnson said leapai is the hardest puncher he has faced. I mean he looks like he hits hard but I would not have guessed he hits harder than all the guys he's fought including all the guys he's sparred.
If the reports of the whole thing are accurate it sounds like Molina lead them on and realised all he can offer in the fight is a vaguely credible cannon fodder, wouldn't be surprised if they tried for Lucas Browne for some local interest but he would also realise what he's bringing to the table so Leapai probably at least needs the $ for a late notice "punchers chance".... knowing that Parker is probably one of the few guys in HW where the punchers chance thing is even a stretch, given he was still almost knocking out Dillian Whyte after taking his biggest headbutts and punches.