Has The Parker Illusion Broken?

What does Parker actually do well? What areas is he extremely good in? There aren't any as far as I can see.

Doesn't have put you out power. His stamina has never been able to last him a full 12 rounds at decent effort. His chin is respectable, but he ain't made out of iron. His boxing ain't Wilder level, but he makes simple mistakes repeatedly, his defense is wildly suspect, and he fails to set up his punches well and instead kinda just swings on people. Movement and footwork aren't horrible, but they ain't spectacular either and now he's packed on 20+ pounds so that's gotten worse.

Parker is a sorta kinda contender who has more cache than he deserves because Warren has put him in some good fights at the right time and because he got gifted that vacant belt early on in his career. Itauma needs another one or two fights and then to have Parker fed to him. Or maybe Parker can piddle around fighting D-level guys until Usyk bails and the belts scatter. Then maybe he gets another cheese vacant fight for one so he can become 2x champ.

 

Parker has fought 4 top 10 ranked Heavyweights in a row and come out with a record of 3-1.

Just to put that into perspective for today's Heavyweights.

Fury during his entire title reign beat a grand total of 2 top 10 ranked Wilder, Whyte.

What would Furys record look like if he had to fight 4 top 10 ranked Heavyweights in a row ?

Or most Heavyweights now ? Barring Usyk.

I agree that Parker's recent record may of flattered him a bit but I wouldn't say he's a gatekeeper.

He's been a world champion and has been amongst the top 10 Heavyweights for nigh on a decade.

So I'd say Parker is one of the top contenders of this era.

Parker has took more risks than most Heavyweights he didn't pad his record fighting unranked fighters.

Parker didn't even need to take the Wardley fight if more Heavyweights were like Parker alot of their clean records wouldn't look so hot either.

 

The funniest thing is that he and his team clearly believed the new hype and thought they'd cruise through this and fight Usyk.
He struggled to beat old Chisora and got smashed to pieces by Joyce who old Chisora actually beat.
He's not even as good as Chisora.
That's a hard thing for his fans to accept but time will help with this process.

 

Boxing rankings can't be taken seriously. Okolie is ranked #1 with one of the sanctioning bodies. Itauma hasn't beaten anyone with a pulse and he's #1 with multiple sanctioning bodies, IIRC.

 

Yep this. When you are constantly fighting quality opposition you are bound to lose eventually only very special fighters or cherry pickers can remain undefeated. Unfortunately the take from the standard casual boxing fan is to call a fighter overrated as soon as they lose a fight.

 

I'm talking about ring magazine rankings not sanction bodies.

When people reference ranked fighters they normally refer to ring magazine rankings which is normally a good gauge who the top 10 fighters are in each division.

Regardless Parker has taken more risks than most Heavyweights hence he's more likely to take a loss.

What other Heavyweight in this era outside of Usyk have fought 4 consecutive top ranked Heavyweights in a row ?

 

As I said in my pre fight prediction. His recent form was massively overrated and I had Wardley winning via KO.

Parker is still the same guy that was viciously stopped by Joe Joyce, and bullied into a loss vs Whyte.

If those two guys can get the job done, then I thought surely Wardley can, and that is how it turned out.

 

This has absolutely shattered Anthony Joshua's resume

 

Well that was a good call - but what was your prediction for Wilder v Parker and Zhang v Parker?

I disagree that Parker's recent form was "massively overrated". Because apart from Usyk, Parker's recent form was as good as anyone's in the division. There was only him, Dubois and Kabayel to choose from, and Dubois was twice KO'd by Usyk within a 2 year period.

 

Why would he need one or two fights? ... and why would he even fight Parker at all?
If Parker's as average as you say, what would it prove?

 

Itauma hasn't fought anyone with a pulse yet. That's why.

 

Here we go. We got over the ridiculous Parker hype, and now the Wardley hype begins.

I'm sure we'll hear "Usyk is ducking Wardley" comments in this forum soon.

 

I wasn't hyping Wardley. I don't rate him as anything more than what he is. A dangerous puncher, good chin, determined, relatively young, unbeaten.
I'm asking a simple question. When was the last time Fury or Joshua beat someone like that?

 

Recent result has definitely been a wake up call. Myself included.

Still want a rematch with Wardley for a chance to reclaim his place. We have a quiet division ahead of us and Parker is still there despite the set backs.