Boxing: Anthony Joshua vs Joseph Parker

On the final day of March, the WBA, WBO, and IBF world heavyweight titles will be at stake at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. British superstar Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) has the WBA and IBF belts, while New Zealand’s Joseph Parker is the WBO champion. Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) holds the WBC title, and the fight many want to see is Joshua vs. Wilder to determine a true, undisputed champion.

Joshua is no doubt one of the top stars in boxing right now, with potential to grab hold of the #1 spot very soon. Another 75,000+ are expected to attend this Saturday’s show, which amounts to about 240,000 fans watching him in-person over the last three bouts. He passed his biggest test by winning last April’s epic with Wladimir Klitschko, then got the expected TKO of short-notice replacement Carlos Takam in October. Before we can even entertain the idea of Joshua against Wilder, he first needs to get by Parker.

The 26-year-old Parker only turned pro in 2012, just one year before Joshua, and has spent much of his career in his native New Zealand. One of his wins on his way towards a title shot came against Takam, and on December 10th, 2016, he won the vacant WBO title by majority decision over Andy Ruiz, giving New Zealand its first ever heavyweight champion. His last two outings have been rather lackluster, as he went the distance vs. unheralded Răzvan Cojanu, then won a somewhat controversial (and very ugly) majority decision against Hughie Fury last September. Parker made roughly $1.5 million for the Fury fight, and he’s expected to make at least six times that amount against Joshua.

There has been a lot of pre-fight noise from the Parker camp, with his promoter David Higgins repeatedly making reference to Joshua’s weak chin, something the British world champion has angrily refuted.

Parker was in no doubt that the upcoming clash would be the most difficult of his career, but he anticipates that he will be taking three major world titles back to New Zealand.