Saturday night sees Joe Joyce take on Joseph Parker on BT Sport Box Office, with the fight being co-promoted by Queensbury’s Frank Warren and Boxxer’s Ben Shalom. On the eve of the scrap, Shalom has raised a concern.
Shalom promotes Joseph Parker and this will be the New Zealander’s first fight under his guidance. The former WBO heavyweight world champion is currently on a six-fight win streak since losing to Dillian Whyte and is coming into the fight off the back of successive victories over Derek Chisora.
However, despite winning 16 of his first 18 fights by knockout, the Kiwi now has just three stoppages in his last eleven fights. In an interview with Boxing Social, Ben Shalom has admitted that fair judging, or a lack of, is his primary concern going into the fight with Parker being the away fighter.
“We’re looking forward to it, his fans are over here, he feels like the home fighter.
I just hope that the judging is fair, because it could go to points and we need it to be. We’ve seen it a lot this year. That’s my only concern about this thing.”
Even though the stoppages are becoming less common, that’s not to say that Parker is declining. Instead, he has looked reborn under new trainer Andy Lee, making the switch after a disappointing performance against Junior Fa under Kevin Barry.
Lee has been in his corner in both Chisora fights and he has noticeably improved on both occasions. Parker is now showing his ability to outbox opponents and has shown a vast improvement in his jab, but as Shalom mentions, this style is dependent on fair scoring.
Joyce and Parker are ranked by the WBO as the #1 and #2 heavyweights in the world, with a win for either putting them in a strong position to challenge for a world title against Oleksandr Usyk.
Joe Joyce takes on Joseph Parker this Saturday night at the AO Arena in Manchester on BT Sport Box Office with a stacked undercard to support them.
Also featuring on the night is future hall-of-famer Amanda Serrano, a British title fight between Ekow Essuman and Sam Antwi and the IBO super-featherweight world title is up for grabs as Anto Cacace takes on Michael Magnesi.
