Joseph Parker has one of the biggest fights of his career coming up, but his coach thinks he has the ‘key’ to victory.
Parker has never shied from a top level challenge. He became a world champion with a narrow points win over Andy Ruiz Jr back in 2016 and then took on Anthony Joshua in 2018. He lost that fight over 12 rounds, and the same happened when he took on Dillian White later that year.
He has since faced and twice beaten Derek Chisora, but was knocked out by Joe Joyce in 2022. Three wins on the rebuild since then have all come in 2023 and have led him to face Deontay Wilder on the December 23 Day of Reckoning card in Saudi Arabia, which also features Anthony Joshua versus Otto Wallin and Daniel Dubois versus Jarrell Miller.
Speaking to Queensbury, Parker’s coach and former middleweight champion Andy Lee believes staying busy is the key to victory.
“Fighting Simon Kean only two or three weeks ago, you couldn’t get better preparation for Deontay Wilder in terms of similar stance, similar height, long. When you’ve got a fight and active fighter, and to me that is the key to this fight, activity. Tyson Fury’s performance against Ngannou, a lot of that was down to inactivity.”
Finally, he compared the activity levels of both men and explained that was his reasoning for taking the Wilder fight, though Wilder warns he will be looking for a knockout if Parker comes straight at him.
“Three wins this year and this will be Joe’s fourth fight this year, compared to Deontay Wilder who has only had one round since October 2021, so that’s one of the reasons I thought this was the right time to fight Deontay Wilder.”
That one round blow-out of his former sparring partner Robert Helenius came a year after Wilder took the second of two punishing knockout losses to Fury, so what he has left will be fascinating for all to see, though he has already been speaking of his desire to fight Joshua no matter the outcome of either of their upcoming fights.