British super middleweight prospect, Zach Parker, is thinking ahead to a fight against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez – and believes he knows the key to beating the Mexican superstar.
Parker fights John Ryder for the vacant WBO interim belt this Saturday, with the winner putting themselves in prime position for a world title fight against the undisputed champion in Canelo.
Whilst his fight with Ryder appears to be a 50/50 clash on paper, both men will have an eye on The Mexican’s next move, with hopes of securing a massive pay day and the opportunity to share the ring with one of the modern greats.
Whilst Parker is relatively untested against world level opposition, Ryder will provide him that experience, having previously lost a controversial title fight with, then WBA champion, Callum Smith and coming off a career best win against Daniel Jacobs.
A win over Ryder would undoubtedly be the 27-year-old’s best victory to date but Parker’s ambition to not only fight, but beat Canelo, was clear to see an in an interview with BBC Sport.
“You just need the right style against him, you need to be big enough and have power to keep him off you.”
He’s on a downward spiral at the minute, I think he is there to be beat.
He lost to [Dmitry] Bivol and he didn’t look amazing against an old [Gennady] Golovkin.
I’m buzzing to get a world title and it adds that extra bit with Canelo. That’s the sort of fights you want to be in boxing for.
He’s not just one of the best boxers out there, but you get a lot of money from that fight, which will provide for my family.”
With a four-inch height advantage and a two-and-a-half-inch reach advantage, Parker clearly believes that he has the style to overcome Canelo and become just the third fighter to beat him.
First, he must defeat John Ryder this weekend at the O2 Arena in London. The fight will be shown live on BT Sport, with the undercard featuring the likes of Hamzah Sheeraz (16-0), Dennis McCann (13-0) and Sam Noakes (9-0).