New BOXXER signing Joseph Parker hopes he can still fight Joe Joyce but refuses to accept that it was his fault the deal to face ‘The Juggernaut’ fell apart.
The two heavyweights attended the Tyson Fury-Dillian Whyte event on April 23 at Wembley Stadium. They were joined live by Joyce’s promoter Frank Warren who revealed the contenders would fight one another on a Queensbury Promotions show in the summer. The traditional face-off then took place as did one backstage too. However, there was never an official announcement.
As time wore on Parker’s manager David Higgins continued to reiterate that an agreement had not been completed. Then on June 11 it was announced that the former WBO Heavyweight champion had committed his future to BOXXER and fighting on Sky Sports.
Parker told talkSPORT he hopes to fight at the end of September or early October.
“We still want to get the fight with Joyce,” he added. “I know they [Queensbury] said because I signed with a different platform, we can’t make it happen, but this is when egos come into play. I’m sure Frank Warren can let Joe come on to the Sky platform and fight me. That’s number one and number two fighting each other so why not make it happen.”
Presenter Adam Catterall, who was joined by journalist Gareth A. Davies, then played a clip from their interview with Warren who gave his side on why the Joyce fight isn’t happening.
“As you know at Tyson’s last fight him, and Joe got together, and we announced it was to be done.
We agreed terms, I shook hands with Joe and then got the solicitors to get the contracts which took a long while. Eventually they got them done and I heard the day before it was announced he’d signed a deal with Sky, and I sent him a text which I’m reading now. On the 9 th of June at 12.56 I said, ‘Just been told the fight is off so much for your handshake’. And then I got a text back at 21.33 saying ‘Morning Frank apologies it took a while to get the deal done but got offered a better deal last minute’.”
Parker was then asked for his response and put the ball straight back in Warren’s court.
“Yeah, I was offered a better deal. Frank can say whatever he wants to say. Frank kept changing the deal. The contract kept changing and that’s why it took so long to lock in. Every time they came back there was always something different in it.”
“I said to him I could make the fight happen,” he continued. “I shook his hand on one deal and then all of a sudden [he] went back and changed the deal.
We can go back and forth and say this and that but why can’t we make the fight happen. Just because he’s on BT Sport and I’m on Sky Sports doesn’t mean we can’t make it happen. It’s all egos.
“It’s a fight that we need to make. We already announced it anyways. It’s number one and number two fighting for the mandatory so why not make it happen. Our team are in talks with Frank to try and make it happen. Hopefully we can lock something in soon.”
After listening to a list of contenders, who would be suitable opponents, from Gareth A. Davies Parker made it clear who he wanted to fight.
“I want to fight Joe Joyce or Dillian Whyte, or anyone in the top 5 that’s available. I want to be progressing and getting better as a fighter than taking light fights or easy fights.”