Parker is shaping up to be this era's Jimmy Young/Chris Byrd. He seems to frustrate the hell out of the sluggers. If he can keep his guard up and avoids too many of those hellacious left hooks, he should take this.
Parker has only been stopped once and he’s faced a lot of punchers - Zhang, Wilder, Joshua, Whyte, - I would pick him here to win but the Whyte loss gives me pause. Tua is better than Whyte by a little. 50/50 for me but Tua doesn’t stop him imo.
Tua could be outboxed he was befuddled by the likes of Rahman, Maskaev, for long periods who aren't exactly a level above Parker. Parker has good durability and has beaten some notable punchers and he's only been stopped once by Joyce who was throwing like 70-80 punches a round and he's like what 260+ pounds ? But saying all that as another poster mentioned Whyte did beat Parker and he did drop him heavily and hurt him with a left hook which was Tua's bread and butter. And whilst Parker has had some good wins vs some big punchers as i noted earlier. Wilder for whatever reason was very passive vs Parker and he seemed to age overnight. And Zhang has no gas tank in the 2nd half of a fight. Tua maybe limited but he has KO power at any point in the fight so I'm not entirely sure about this one in all honesty. I could see Parker winning a decision but I could also see Tua catching Parker with a few left hooks and stopping him late in the fight.
I like Parker by decision. He's quite a good boxer who can stick to a gameplan and not panic against big punchers, as well as take a big shot if he needs to. I think he'd come in well prepared with a good strategy and outpoint Tua.
