Joseph Parker: The Samoan Sledgehammer Of South Auckland-The Heavyweight Kaipato Kiwi

Takam is world level, Parker beat him - logic is pretty simple to follow if you aren't just hating for the sake of it. Look at the compubox for that fight, or just watch and score the fight yourself - Parker's guard was dropped a lot but his defense while needing work was not as patchy as people are making it out, he was landing more much more accurately than Takam. Dillian Whyte landed a number of shots on AJ despite Whyte having no accuracy, and a fairly low work rate for most of the fight.

Top 10 (or even 15) is legit world level, and he's improved every time out. As much as you hate it, it's real. He has done more to earn a title shot than AJ did, he has actually done more to prove himself so far.... so by your logic AJ is still a prospect as well. He ended up with a title because he ended up fighting the worst HW champ possibly ever, and he got called out by him as opposed to earned the mandatory.

 

Anthony Joshua beats Joseph Parker IMO.

However each fighter has taken interesting paths to get to where they are. When I link the big name fighters (popular past and current) that have fought each respective fighter, it seems to suggest that Parker has fought more quality opposition thus coming through a rather more difficult path than Joshua. This may or may not be a good thing for Parker, not going to go into the pros and cons of that but let's look at it some of the opponents.

Let's start with Joshua..
-Charles Martin (Tomas Adamek, Steve Cunningham)
-Dillian Whyte (Brian Minto)

Parker..
-Carlos Takam (Alexander Povetkin, George Arias, Michael Sprott, Tony Thompson, Michael Grant, Frans Botha)
-Kali Meehan (Ruslan Chageav, Hasim Rahman, Lamont Brewster)
-Sherman Williams (Gerald Washington, Robert Helenius)
-Brian Minto (Artur Szpilka, Chris Arreola)
-Frans Botha (Wladimir Klitschko, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Shannon Briggs, Michael Moorer)

The names in brackets were the fighters those guys fought before their bout with Parker. Lot of those fighters were well past their prime when they fought Parker but you get an idea of the experience they have and the quality in that they were even good enough to be pitted against some of these proven names.

I found it difficult to attach big name fighters to Joshua's opponents/victims but it does not mean Joshua's opponents are pushovers. Martin I never rated ever, I only heard of him when I watched his fight with whatever his name is. Anyway that fight was ****. I don't think we've seen too much of Whyte but he is an exciting prospect as he showed us against his awesome fight with Joshua, we gotta reserve judgement for when he decides to get off his backside and starts fighting. Whyte shouldn't fight Parker yet, probably not a good idea, he should look at a easier opponent.

 

A very good post

 

I see what youre saying but by this logic youd then need to expand adamek and cunninghams fight experience which is also pretty damn comprehensive.

Jo looked horrible vs Takam due to the rubbish he was decapitating months before. Also tall low quality guys dont get you ready for a small pressure guy who has perfected his strategy against taller guys.
It was too much. Too different too soon.

Defence is more complacent than horrendous. Would like to see sharper head movement mind you. Put some energy into evasion. Or even employ a counter strategy, he just seems to plod backwards when pressured without much imagination.

 

Typical Dinodope going on for nothing. This is your hobby, right? Just spew hate on fighters behind your keyboard. You know damn well Takam is a solid contender and Parker made good account himself at this stage of his career.

 

I'm going to throw in some Rugby an4logies...

The skills involved in rugby are the mixture of power and evasiveness. To make it to the top level (All Blacks) you may get the crowd roaring if you run over a few players, but the coaches and selectors want to see players use the higher percentage option to evade the opposition through footwork and slight of hand.

Joseph shows that he still has the mentality that he would just like to run over that opposite. Something as a big Samoan boy, he probably did regularly growing up, playing contact sport like we do in NZ. But as levels increase those talented players get weeded out to those in the top tier of players that take the gap first, and if the space doesn't allow, the power to run over comes into it.

The issue I have is...will that mentality come out again in the ring? He freely admitted that the camps were showing off skills in defense, then his head switched off against Takam and he did things he never did in camp.

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So, will this wakeup call see Joseph move on from this defense lapse, or is it something that will take much longer? I would like to see less punching heavy bag videos coming out, and more sparring videos showing evasiveness coming off the ropes, and while getting pressured forward.

The criticism from the forum about his showing against Takam just shows that there is genuine interest with the career of Joe. There will be the occasional 'bum" comment from perennial trolls, but regardless of that, there is no denying that Joe has fan appeal.

 

A good standard of conditioning is to be expected , not to be desired.
Boxing is Parkers life and at the very least he should be fit and primed to box a good pace for 12 rounds.
Having a defensive deficiency is fine , that can be worked on , but being out of condition is unacceptable for any any top professional sportsman.
I don't wanna see it. Its an insult to the game.

He obviously slacked off on the road work and stamina exercises. Why should i care about a guy whose dedication to the sport is left wanting?

I root for guys to bleed blood , sweat and tears and give it their maximum effort

 

No I wouldn't need to expand on Adamek and Cunningham because they are linked to Charles Martin whom Joshua HAS fought. I'll put in two steps to make it easier to understand because it can be rather confusing..

1. I picked out Joshua and Parkers best opponents THAT THEY HAVE FOUGHT based on popularity and level

2. I then put into brackets the big name fighters that THOSE FIGHTERS have fought BEFORE they fought either Joshua or Parker

So you can see why I couldn't put in Adamek and Cunningham cos basically they haven't fought Joshua. I was going to add Glaskov to Martins opponents but if you've seen him then you'd know why I didn't.

Parkers defence was very poor and you can't fault it on his mediocre cardio either as we seen Bergman rock his head back in their bout prior to Takam. It's his defence (should he need to call upon it against say Joshua) that's his undoing especially in a division where only one shot is all it takes, against Takam he wore far too many.

Takam pressured nicely as usual but wasn't really connecting like he normally does. I had it draw after 10 rounds but then Parker outboxed him in the last 2. Parker showed both intelligent boxing under fatigue and that he possesses a solid jaw because he did get tagged well a few times.

Komaster you are on the mark with his defence. Bad habits come back to you in the ring when you're tired and in the last few rounds Parker stood like Roy Jones, before that I saw him do Floyds Philly Shell, other times his evasive footwork was like 'oh are you going that way too?' so he needs to develop a stable defence that suits him and that he can work of. Maybe smarter footwork (e.g. Stick n move, circling) cos it's easier to digest, execution blossoms with experience of course and at 24 years of age time is not a problem.

Nice one Komaster.

 

Every fighter may have flawes in their game, especially when they're 24 with 18 pro fights and stepping up against a legit contender. Parker showed he can deal with variety, that he can still fight even when he gets tired.

Fighters also shouldn't get reckless in the ring either, which is exactly what Joshua did against Whyte in the 2nd round. According to you, that should mean his dedication to the sport is left wanting too. But his dedication isn't being questioned for it because sane people know that It's perfectly normal for a prospect to have flawes in his game.

You're just a troll who's sense of fun is to spew hate on fighters who risk their lives in the ring behind his keyboard.

 

So JP has someone lined up for a fight in Sept. It's nice seeing fights organised and announced ahead of time. That would be Parkers 4th fight this year. Keeping busy, learning, winning, ranking...

Just saying...

Stiverne has had 5 fights since April 2012

 

Great to see Joseph keeping busy. I hope they're not rushing him and they get that work/rest balance to suit him.

He's actually fun to watch as he's a boxer's boxer. His fans should be happy that Joesph ain't fooling around like some of the others that are ranked higher are doing.

Good stuff.

 

Yep. Good posts in this thread Mr Fixter.

 

Looking mean: https://scontent-syd1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=eadc14fd6e3a43be40d8cba99d5f9037&oe=582C2BA1

Can't wait to see JP back in the ring this month. Looking like Parker potentially will fit in a couple more fights this year, especially with Mr Humble's promoter holding off as long as they can (and potentially even past the IBF cutoff date) before they face the Samoan Sledgehammer.

 

Parker is meh. I see him as a solid contender, and a level above guys like Pulev, Perez, and Takam but I don't see him being a champion while Fury, Wilder, and Joshua are around.