AJ vs Parker

I think a lot of people are underrating Parker's chances against Joshua, Parker has a better jab, he is faster, has a sturdy chin and hits hard himself.

 

Parker has about a 10% chance and that's only BC Joshua is still playing around with what weight he feels comfortable with.

All directions point out to a very bad night for Parker both in the ring and the timing of this fight which should bring out the best Joshua yet.

 

Parker will get steamrolled too slow to box and move don't hit hard enough to keep Aj off him .

 

Parker would be wise to use Takam's strategy except be more aggressive and actually win some rounds.
AJ will gas in the later rounds and that's when you press action.

 

Parker will surprise to the upside (hugely)

 

I don't think he can pull off that type of fight as Takam and Parker have quite different skill sets. Takam, moved and tried to draw AJ into counters, Takam used a similar strategy against Parker though moved less and was more aggressive vs Parker. But Takam's problem vs AJ is he was being picked off from range and countered himself when he tried to counter Joshua.

Parker doesn't have the defensive skills Takam has. If he sits back and allows AJ to lead he'll get pushed back and steam rolled because he doesn't counter punch when on the back foot. He'll put himself in overly defensive positions with no way to mount an offence.

But despite this, I suspect Parker will try and box and move as I think he knows trying to trade with Joshua will only end in a short and painful night for him. I think his plan will be to move and pick spots to let his hands go and try to rack up the rounds by out boxing AJ or simply look to mount a late attack to KO a tired Joshua. Problem is while on the back foot his lack of counter punching will mean he won't have many opportunities to let his hands go as he needs to be set to punch. And when he does let his hands go he'll get countered as he has a bad habit of firing then just standing there to be hit.

I think Joshua stops him around the 9th. Though I can see Parker going the distance if he decides to go into survival mode.

 

I'm just worried that a ref will do a British Stoppage on Parker with AJ missing wildly (ala Takam).

Takam vs Parker in the 8th round when Parker unloaded on Takam with 20+ unanswered punches vs AJ vs Takam when Aj hit him with 1 punch, then missed with 6 and got waved off.

Night and Day refereeing.

 

Hopefully they don't have a British ref and ship in someone decent. That stoppage in the Takam fight was one of the worst I've seen recently. Maybe Joshua could of stopped Takam legitimately as he'd dropped him twice but he was not that badly hurt at all when the ref stepped in.

 

I think Joshua has too many options here not to be the heavy favourite. He has the superior range and know-how to use it, he has the counter punching, and he has the come-forward aggression, all things that have troubled Parker in the past. Parker has the superior speed and could potentially get into the fight if Joshua does something silly, but if Joshua plays it relatively safe and doesn't blow his load trying to go for an early KO then he should comfortably win.

My only worries with Joshua are that he's recently shown a bit of a reckless streak and tendency to play to the crowd, which could be dangerous against Parker. I suspect he'll be a lot more focussed here though, knowing Joe's threat level and ability to cause the upset.

Joshua by UD or late TKO.

 

TBH I feel Parker should have switched trainers a fair while ago. Kevin Barry can only get him so far