Is Joseph Parker stepup for Joshua?

Fair enough.

But Parker has very good speed for his size, and just an all-round game that AJ has not faced before.

 

A lot of people seem to be suggesting that AJ is better in a toe-to-toe battle against parker. I disagree. Parker is similar to someone like golovkin, who puts his opponent under constant pressure by being aggressive. Parker also has pretty fast hands, and his combinations may stop AJ from replying with counter-punches as much as he would normally.

I think parker will force AJ onto the back foot, sort of how we saw in the first round or two in the Klitschko fight, but the pressure will be more sustained and last much longer. We saw the aggression in the hughie fury fight, that is what won him that fight. AJ is no hughie fury, and we will see parker's pressure pay off more against AJ than against fury.

I think AJ should come in lighter. 18st is too much against parker because parker will win the brawls from just constant combinations and pressure. AJ has to come in lighter (Around 17 and a half stone, something like that) and try using some of his defensive skills. I'm not suggesting he should fight like hughie did, far from it. He's too big to fight like that. But he needs to respect parker and let him tire a little. Use his counter-punching in the early rounds, then once parker tires, he can then put on the pressure in the late rounds, maybe rounds 8 and onwards.

AJ will win, but it won't be easy. He needs to use his experience from the amateurs and fight a little more on the back foot.

 

Parker wasn't able to apply constant pressure to Ruiz Jr. He was able to get off first but Ruiz Jr just fired back and eventually forced him to box defensively and I think the same thing will happen against Joshua. From the 5th round onwards Takam was able to push Parker back and be more effective up close but Takam was the one being constantly forced back and was losing the exchanges up close when against Joshua. So I can't see a situation where Parker wins on the inside where his open guard will leave him vulnerable.

I think Joshua can win this fight either on the back foot, countering Parker as he comes in, or by pushing him onto the back foot where Parker finds it harder to mount any kind of offence. This is why it's such a big ask for Parker, he has the tools to trouble Joshua but not the style to win.

 

No. I don't rate Parker very average fighter doesn't have any thing special .British level fighter .AJ should sweep him away early if he is all he's cracked up to.still won't tell us much.

 

If Joshua doesn't stop Parker by vicious ko then his reputation should take a serious hit.
Parker is the kind of opponent that good to great hw champs eat up and show their skills to their fans. Or not.

 

I see some people saying that Parker is a go forward pressure fighter and yet i cant think of a single fight that he did that against any Lind of top 50 heavyweight, So what example is there that shows he has great forward driving attacks?

he is awful going backwards for the most part, and his attempts to go forward against hughie were abysmal and we saw him doing a Wilder impersonation when he went swinging for the fences and still missed just like Wilder did lol

against a static fighter Parker looks the goods. I can kinda see how he might go the distance with AJ is as conservative with Parker as he was with Takam. AJ won every single round against Takam until the head scratching stoppage.

i can see Parker having his moments, but i cant see him winning too many rounds, if any at all.