Joseph Parker will make his bid to become a two-time heavyweight champion on February 22nd, but knows it won’t be an easy night’s work.
Joseph Parker’s career has seen something of a resurgence following his defeat to Joe Joyce.
The New Zealand native had racked up two losses, to Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, before facing Joyce, but since then has gone undefeated in five fights.
These include defeating Jack Massey, a former European cruiserweight champion, becoming the second man to beat Deontay Wilder, in a near shut-out victory, and taking the interim title from Zhilei Zhang, who has been training with LL Cool J, after picking himself up off the canvas twice.
Parker’s recent outings give weight to the belief that he has the ability to avenge any of his career defeats, though with Joyce and Whyte on the slide, Joshua may be the only one left to avenge.
Parker took his first-ever loss against Joshua in 2018 in his first attempt at unifying the heavyweight belts.
Joseph Parker says he was depressed following world-title win against Andy Ruiz
Parker won the WBO world title in 2016 by majority decision against Andy Ruiz.
Aged just 24 at the time, Parker had achieved the goal he’d set out to, and was left feeling low after, in similar fashion to fellow heavyweight and close friend, Tyson Fury.
Parker told Daily Mail Sport: “Now I’m here at this stage in my life and career I look back now, I probably was depressed […] I had fights locked in but I wasn’t really taking them seriously.”
He was then asked if he felt like he had won the title for himself or for others, to which he replied:
“I wanted to win the championship so bad for New Zealand, Samoa, and my dad. […] I did want to win it myself but not as much as I wanted to win it for everyone else.”
Joseph Parker details everything he missed out on to get to the top
In the same interview, Parker is asked how he feels about the sacrifices he has had to make, to which he replied:
“I would’ve loved to be at every birth, […] I would’ve loved to be at my sister’s wedding, my dad’s 60th, I would have loved to be at my mum’s birthday and in-laws’ birthday, but […] they all understand and they all support me so much that no one gives me any grief.”
He concludes: “They all want me to be the best that I can be”.
Parker will aim to give a career-best performance against Daniel Dubois on the Dmitry Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev undercard to become a heavyweight world champion once more.
Dubois has sent Parker a warning ahead of their fight, and seeks to make his first successful title defence.
Dubois, now 22-2, is no push-over, though, and has been on a dominant run of late, with stoppage wins over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic, and, most recently and most brutally, Anthony Joshua.
Also on the card is Callum Smith, who has named George Groves as a better opponent than Joshua Buatsi, as well as Hamzah Sheeraz, who admits he won’t pray before fighting Carlos Adames, as he doesn’t want an “unfair advantage”.