Joseph Parker... a meaningless fight for Usyk?

No.

 

Yeah, there are some dark skeletons in Parker's closet.
Let's not forget his performance against a very young Hughie Fury.
I'm not even much of a fan of Dubious but he beat Croatian who is a contender and beat AJ like nobody ever has, better than any thing Parker ever did in the space of a year or so. That's not because it's impressive, just because Parker never did much just hung around in the rankings. People don't seem to realise Zhang and Wilder were old and shot. And Zhang was never very good, people, that's why he dodged the world until he was around forty. That's hilarious.

 

Zhang did not magically get old overnight. He was coming off back to back wins vs Joyce. He was the boogeyman of the division.

 

Agree and disagree. Parker is NOT a legacy-defining fight when you have Fury, AJ and Dubious on your ledger. At the same time - who else is even left at that point? Kabayel gets way too much credit from beating an even older Zhang, Hrgo kinda just p1sses about doing nothing. Itauma? Well, seeing another English lad get his hype train derailed would be kinda funny, but his handlers are probably too smart for that.

To quote a great philosopher of our time: "It is what it is".

 

The Kabayel fight is interesting because Kabayel brings a different style. He throws lots of shots, lots of combinations, and he works the body heavily. I actually think that would be the perfect opponent for Usyk because Usyk loves killing nonsense narratives and leaving no stone un-turned. If he smokes Kabayel that puts the "he's weak to the body" silliness to bed for good. Of course, that fight won't happen because Kabayel isn't a name, he's a Turkish German, and he brings the least amount of money while also being behind Parker in the pecking order.

Parker just doesn't bring anything to the table really. His current run of form that people are bigging him up for is even more of a smoke and mirrors act than Dubois' was. Wilder? Completely shot and Parker never hurt him in that entire fight. Just a complete stink fest. Zhang? Barely squeaked out of that one while getting blasted off his feet twice. When Zhang had gas early he was easily winning. Parker only got on top in that fight once Zhang literally stopped throwing any punches. And Bakole isn't worth talking about. The Bakole hype was always nonsense, but a completely off the couch, had to take four different planes to reach the venue 12 hours before the fight, had to use Dubois' gloves because he didn't have any, etc. Bakole? Meh.

Parker wants the payday, that's it. In fact, all these guys want the payday. Fighting Usyk is a win-win. You aren't going to beat him unless something freakish happens, but you'll get paid better than you ever have in your career and if you lose, so what? You lost to the P4P #1 who is going to go down as a Top 10 all-timer. On the extremely slim chance Usyk ages drastically overnight and you beat him your profile goes into the stratosphere. As the meme goes, that's free real estate.

 

Yes Usyk's legacy is sealed but then why fight on? If he's to fight on as planned, he should then fight the best available like any champion should and right now Parker is the most deserving contender. Usyk has beaten everyone that really matters from this era with the exception of Wilder and Parker and Wilder is done while Parker seems to be at his peak. This really is the last name that matters, so for me this is the most logical next fight.

 

Parker's earned his shot & should be given it. Usyk has run a train over northern hemisphere British heavyweights, but let's see how he goes against non-British southern hemisphere types. Last time I checked, Usyk was the World Heavyweight champ. Should man up & fulfil his responsibilities like plenty of others before him have done. His heavyweight champ legacy will be diminished if he doesn't.

 

No

 

But you haven't considered the future here, there is a decent chance that if Usyk retires that Parker goes on a tear up and takes over the division.

If that happens there will always be the question mark over Usyk, "he beat 3 Brits twice, but dipped as soon as he had to fight Parker"

Sure Parker has dropped the odd fight but if he goes on to do dominate those will be credited to dodgy English refs and boxing (AJ ref and Whyte headbutt).

Sure Usyk can retire if he wants, and he has earned it. But in the long term view of the sport how could he be viewed differently?

 

Way better fight than any of the alternatives at the moment. Fighting any of the Brits again is a blatant money grab with next to no risk.

 

I thought we were being logical here.
8Who has the promotion and skill to feasibly beat Parker atm if we take out Usyk?

Fury is retired and won't fight him anyway.
Joshua is shadow of his former self and seriously considering a fight with Jake Paul.
Dubois had a bad loss, who knows where he is at and his flaws have been exposed by Usyk.
Kabayel is unproven, hasn't fought anyone good who can move and gets punched in the head a lot.
Itauma is even more unproven and has yet to fight a live opponent. Though i could see him being a risk to Parker in the future.

Out of the current fighters ther is a legit decent chance that Parker comes out on top.

 

Parker is undoubtedly number two at the moment, by a mile. Kabayel number three.

 

if Usyk wants to settle boxing forum “what if” doubters 20 years from now, the thing to do is beat Parker and Kabayel. And if he takes a final fight against Ituama and beats him (this is assuming Ituama continues looking good), ****. He’s going to be in a lot of top 3 ATG lists.

doubt he cares. He’s said what he wants to do after boxing, and I think his goal is to maximize earnings for the fights he has left in order to do it.

side note, if Ukraine manages to come through this war and continue to exist, Usyk will end up making more money out of boxing than he did in boxing, because he’s like Muhammad Ali (and rightfully so) to his people.