Parker and Ortiz. Stock up or down?

You seem to be lacking a bit of boxing knowledge. Joseph Parker is the WBO Heavyweight Champion of the World. He is a title holder.

 

Whyte has only just elevated himself to near the level of the likes of Takam/Ruiz in my eyes. His stock rose for me with his borderline win against Chisora.

I know Whyte vs Chisora looked like awesome rumble but if you watch highlights from that fight and then watch highlights of Ruiz/Parker back to back it becomes quickly obvious that the tactics, defense, speed, accuracy are all at an immediately obvious higher level with Parker/Ruiz even though the fight didn't seem amazing.

 

Whyte just went life-and-death with an over-the-hill Chisora! He's done nothing to prove he's even a European-level fighter. Stiverne maybe.

 

I respect that you're a big Parker fan so I'll quietly disagree

 

I am clearly a Parker fan and want him to win, but when I watch boxing happening I am watching for boxing things primarily (I was a fan of boxing/fighting WAY before Parker was around and will be after then) and it doesn't matter who it is, I'll notice good and bad and if Parker does bad stuff I don't ignore it - I probably notice it or have bigger issue with it than if I see other people do it... for obvious reasons, I want him to be a good fighter but won't credit him with stuff he doesn't deserve because it sets me up for disappointment. This is clearly reflected in the fact I expressed far from 100% confidence in both the Takam and Ruiz fights, and I've repetitively said I don't want to see Parker face AJ in the current state of things. I have been more realistic and accurate about his skills than you have so far, given he's still undefeated - albeit by a close margin.

When you say you disagree, you are just saying that because you think you know - or have you actually done exactly what I suggested doing and still decided that Parker/Ruiz looked worse?

 

Ortiz has dropped some for me. After the Thompson and Jennings ko Ortiz looked to be among the best heavies out there with Fury, Povetkin, and Wlad. Now I'd drop him back a level with guys like Wilder, Pulev, and Joshua.

The Allen fight doesn't hurt him much, he beat up an ok fighter who seems very durable though he probably should have been a bit more dominant than he was.

The Scott fight hurt him more. That fight showed some real limitations on Ortiz and makes it seem like age might be catching up with him. Ortiz won every round and Scott came to run and not fight which is hard to look good against so I'd cut Ortiz some slack but his stock definitely went down some there.

Parker stayed the same. Weight issues aside Ruiz was a solid undefeated heavyweight and Parker won a close but clear(to me) decision.

Parker graduated from prospect to contender after the Takam win and seemed like he belonged towards the bottom of the top 10 and that's right where I'd keep him after the Ruiz fight.

 

Bang on by my eyes, Bogart. That's pretty much how I feel overall about those guys. Title or no title Parker is a definite presence in but not top of the top 10 guy, in the scheme of things that's not bad progress for someone who a year ago people were saying he was going to get exposed and knocked out as soon as he steps in among the top 20-30 types (Takam/Ruiz etc). He was extremely raw 18 months ago so to be in this position he is progressing well, and we're not likely to have seen the best of him yet.