Currently a 3-0 prospect at cruiser, all of his ring appearances so far have been on Joseph's undercards (three in a row with Parker vs. Alexander Dimitrenko, Andy Ruiz Jr., & Răzvan Cojanu - but skipping the Hughie Fury card) and he's reportedly penciled in for another 4-rounder in his fourth pro match on the Joshua vs. Parker undercard in Cardiff this weekend, albeit not updated to reflect this as of yet on BR. He boasts 6½" less height and, coincidentally, 6½" less reach than his elder bro...and is yet to register a triumph by stoppage professionally, so we are unlikely to see John move up to heavyweight (or under any circumstance face the conundrum of,say, the Klitschko brothers, where they could jam things up for the division by refusing to fight each other). He fought about half as many times as Joe in the amateurs, never quite following in his footsteps to graduate to world level but dominant enough against domestic opposition in national tourneys, going 30-5 overall. Stylistically he is a carbon-copy of Joe (who is also his trainer) - emulating his jab & movement well but lacking the lion's share of his physical strength, and not throwing his power shots as straightly or crisply as his family's decorated white sheep. He is showing improvement each time out, however, struggling to a MD in his debut and then "avenging" the close shave with a comfortable UD in a rematch with the same guy, shutting out debutant Ash "Batman" McConvillle in between in his sophomore outing. The present Kiwi boxing scene is fairly anemic*, so the younger Parker, as unproven as he is, probably stands as the nearest p4p runner-up to his brother, meaning if he turns out alright the Usos of Clan Parker will comprise a dynasty for the country (and for the Samoan diaspora) in boxing. *Especially so with yet another unbeaten prospect going bust earlier today, when 5-0 prospect Conrad Lam was defeated by 40 year old journeyman Daniel Tai for the vacant NZNBF heavyweight title. John's pro debut: This content is protected
Nice writeup. Unfortunately John has far less upside than his brother in my opinion, the best NZ prospect at the moment is David Nyika in the amateurs. All things considered, we are not doing too badly for a very small country. For many years we had exactly zero title holders ...
Oh yeah, for sure I expect that he probably won't do 5% as well as Joe, but he could easily be the p4p #2 from NZ for a while, until a real prospect* emerges. Being a "poor man's Lupesoliai" isn't exactly the worst thing you can be. *Such as Nyika, if & when he turns over, yes. Anybody else we should keep an eye out for?
Actually John's still a way from p4p #2 as Junior Fa (14-0) is a decent HW prospect whom I rate higher than John. He recently beat Craig Lewis (14-1-1) by MD (7-1,6-2,4-4: probably should have been a close UD) in an 8 rounder.
Tervel won bronze in Olympics? And And much older I think, likely blows John out the water if they fight soon. Nice big bro Joe works his corner
Ewww, you rate Fa? Sorry man, going to have to agree to disagree; I've seen him a few times and he's dreadfully bad. The only thing Fa has on John Parker is oodles more power, IMO. Every other aspect of the game, John's better.
He lost against Usyk in the semi-finals. This content is protected They also fought in 2011 in Baku. This content is protected
You're right though, @KiwiMan, in terms of resume for now we probably have to put Fa above the younger Parker in p4p terms, until/unless he catches up.
And tons more size too. That might just be enough - I don't rate John Parker as I think he's too featherfisted and small (i.e. height and reach) to go anywhere. Skillwise he's better, yes, but I don't think it is enough. I used to be down on Fa too but he's got back into shape for the last few fights and has done better. He's a win away from a top 30-50 place and I doubt John Parker will even get that far.
Joe vs. Kubrat would be a lot of fun but Tervel vs. John would be a disaster from what I’ve seen of both lol. Tervel seems to be way further ahead at this point in time
