Can Joseph Parker survive 12 rounds with Moses Itauma

Not sure tbh, they've been very quiet about it. If he is guilty of it then it's the end of the road as far as I'm concerned, and I'd be deeply disappointed.

I would be concerned about Parker jumping straight in with Itauma at this stage of his career, especially with the poor game plan Andy Lee made for the Wardley fight. He got caught very hard in the second round IIRC, and I half expected him to be stopped then.

 

So, he didn't take Sanchez because it weakens his position with the WBO, but he is WBO #1 after Franklin, and he is talking about fighting Hunter.

And don't bother with what has already been told to me, that the WBO title is being contested next month, because that means his fight and the champion's are about a month apart, and rarely is the such good synchronization.

Nor is the fact that him and Wardley are mates a thing--then why is she still worried about his position with the WBO if he doesn't intend to contest with them?

And the whole thing ignores that he is is ignoring Gassiev, who wants him, is a viable path to the WBA, and he wanted that path when its Pulev.

Pattern. You can fall them ducks or something else. I have said over and again I don't care if he goes the slow route. But let's not have the ridiculous hype. He's a work in progress and will be ready in four more years or so.

 

You are not wrong. Bowe's was the king of king of ducks because they had agreed that the winners of the four man would fight before hand, because Lewis stopped him in the Olympics, he was at the beginning of his career and not the end, and because he was dividing titles that others had worked hard to unify. There will never be another duck of that level.

Usyk's is more like Lewis not seeing the value in Byrd or Ruiz. You can make of it what you will--bottom line is he didn't want a fighter that he could have made some good money off of in Wembley. But at 39 years old and giving up titles that he has unified and re-unified, just to me more like Lewis.

I am not even really upset at the ducks, per se. As I have stated any number of times, my beef is with the difference in the rhetoric and performance. If his camp will come out and say that they are going to match him well and get him a shot in four years, then I will be cheering for him. I am just sick of listening to a bunch of demented people here and in the media saying Usyk needs to fight him, when he has no intention whatsoever of fighting Usyk, or anyone who will get him to Usyk, or anyone else who will get him to a belt, yet. He's years off, and anyone can see that. Why not just say it?

 

Because it's more profitable to build his hype by playing off of Usyk's name. Then they'll try and pretend Usyk is ducking him to build it even more.

Laughable anyone thinks this kid is ready for the Grandmaster when his stiffest test to date is Jermaine fuggin' Franklin. And yet talksport, half the punters, and boxing people who ought to know better seem to already be on board with that idiocy.

 

BINGO!

 

Which team doesn't posture or talk **** though? Usyk changes his mind every 5 mins, Fury retires/unretires more often than I have bowel movements, Bakole is the self-crowned sparring champion etc.

It comes down to Itauma's team making noise, hoping to attract the right fights for him. Sanchez and Gassiev ain't it. Most of the public barely know who they are, and they do nothing to raise his profile. Whyte and Franklin at least made sense and were supposed to at least give some level of challenge.

I think Itauma would be an interesting opponent for Usyk, even now, but personally I feel like he needs to wait behind the mandatories and do a bit more in the meantime, maybe chase a loose strap if one falls of the tree.

 

When you have Usyk off to fight Rico he's kinda making that narrative for them, it's not as though a guy with only one professional boxing fight is any more ready to face a grandmaster than Itauma is.

 

It's a duck
There are different kinds of ducks but he ducked Wardley

 

If Dubios wins don't blink because they'll wind up in the ring for a third time.

 

I think even Warren knows that's a tough sale to the public

 

Wouldn't stop him trying though, but hopefully it gets shot dead in the water.

 

I honestly don't think he would
I think he'd try and go a different route to ensure he has a belt in his camp

He know Dubois would lose again

 

I would say he’s building his career in a logical manner, I don’t think for one second he is ducking anyone, he knows he’s the boyo and so does everyone else who has seen him fight.
Does he have flaws? Of course he does the kid is 21, I think he has less flaws than you would expect or than the majority of heavyweight fighters in the past decade, so I get that you are against all this overhyping and I can understand that, but please if you are going to try and knock him then it’s pretty unreasonable to say a 21 year old is ducking anyone, so far all of the opposition has made sense to building him up apart from this nonsense wanting hunter, so he must have his eye on someone who is currently tied up.
It seems quite obvious that he wouldn’t be ducking Sanchez, he would smash him to bits.
Anyway I get the feeling that you are probably going to be knocking this kid for his whole career so, while I can’t say you are wrong because you can interpret things as you wish, you seem to be quite staunch about it.
If every time a fighter chooses a different opponent when there were other options does that make it a duck? Did Usyk duck Parker and Wardley?
I think it only qualifies as a duck if there is a clear avoidance of a fight out of fear, rather than choosing a different opponent because it makes more sense in terms of incremental career progression or because an opponent has a certain quality that possesses a challenge that can develop a weaker area of a fighter’s skill set, hence taking Franklin to get more rounds, so with that being the case or my opinion, there is absolutely no reason or justification for calling out Hunter, and so I will happily hold him to account should the fight get made.

 

He’s apparently appealing the findings so he hasn’t been sanctioned yet, but it seems like most verdicts on get wiffed up are pretty lenient as it rightly not considered to be performance enhancing.
Those music videos he was making calling out Usyk seem to make more sense now though haha, gutted for him as he is a proper lad I hope he can rescue his career and get another chance.

 

Well said mate. All in all it's too early to start jumping to conclusions.