One of the biggest fights of 2018 is upon us this Saturday afternoon from Wembley Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Three of the four heavyweight titles will be on the line as England’s WBA and IBF titleholder Anthony Joshua and New Zealand’s WBO titlist Joseph Parker clash in the middle of the ring.
Everyone knows who Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) is at this point in time in the sport of boxing. After bringing home gold at home in London in the 2012 Olympic games, “AJ” was already a star on some level before he even took on his first professional bout. Appearing chiseled from stone and being well spoken, Joshua had all the makings of a major attraction. Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing have obviously done a brilliant job promoting the British megastar, but they definitely had damn good ingredients to work with at the start too.
Anthony Joshua started his career with fourteen straight stoppage wins over the usual suspects. He picked up a few faded local names like Matt Skelton and Michael Sprott for his ledger as well as a couple equally faded American names such as Kevin Johnson. There was no real challenge in any of these, but the fights were necessary for fighter development. Through it all, AJ’s star only grew brighter.
It was his fifteenth fight against fellow prospect Dillian Whyte for the British heavyweight crown that brought the first bit of excitement to Anthony Joshua’s career. Facing a fellow young unbeaten fighter, Joshua found himself in a bit of trouble in the first two rounds before taking over to smash out Whyte in the seventh. The ability to overcome adversity to storm back and win via stoppage was definitely a bit of foreshadowing for things to come.
As tough as the Whyte fight was, Joshua’s first world title opportunity in his very next fight was as equally weak. Charles Martin has a serious argument for being the weakest heavyweight titleholder of all time. The American won his belt without landing a shot thanks to a freak injury in a vacant title fight he had no right to be in to begin with. Accordingly, Joshua smashed him out in two. The British heavyweight titleholder’s next two fights were better against Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina, but neither man had the physical ability to challenge him.
Longtime divisional king Wladimir Klitschko certainly did, however. While Tyson Fury’s points win over Klitschko had taken a little of the luster off the dominant Ukrainian, this was still a major matchup. Plus, Fury’s win, as huge as it was, was in a bit of a tedious fight without a really satisfying conclusion. That would not be the case here. After four slow rounds, Joshua came to life in the fifth to batter the veteran and send him to the canvas. He may have exerted too much going for the finish, however, as Wladimir came back with what briefly looked like a knockout shot of his own in the sixth. Joshua was badly hurt, but Klitschko did not press his advantage and he survived. That might have been his undoing. After several more tense rounds, Anthony Joshua once again found his chin in the eleventh. Wladimir valiantly ate several huge shots, but ultimately he went down twice and the torch was passed to the heavyweight division’s new king. As was Klitschko’s IBF belt.
Since his career defining knockout win in April of last year, Joshua defended his title once against Carlos Takam in a solid ten round performance. Takam is an underrated fighter and landed a bit more than he gets credit for, but he didn’t really win much in terms of rounds. The stoppage in the tenth was bogus and likely designed to preserve the British star’s unblemished knockout record, but it wasn’t one people really got mad at. Carlos Takam wasn’t winning that fight in the next couple rounds.
Without the same amateur success and fighting out of a more obscure locale like New Zealand, Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) didn’t turn put on his gloves with the built in expectation of super stardom. He first started getting noticed after his sixth fight in which young Parker destroyed the corpse of former heavyweight fringe contender Francois Botha inside two rounds. At this point as a prospect Parker was starting to get the reputation for being a big puncher. He backed it up against trial horses like Brian Minto and Kali Meehan with dominant stoppage wins.
Joseph Parker first stepped up to the world level in 2016 for a title eliminator against the very same Carlos Takam that Anthony Joshua fought last time out. Parker did not dominate him like his opponent Saturday did, however, and really needed to pull away late to get the win. Again, I think Carlos Takam is actually a really good fighter, so to me this was still impressive at the time. The only concern I had was that it almost felt as if Takam’s fatigue lost the fight more than anything Parker was able to do.
After two stay busy stoppage wins against regional level fighters in Solomon Haumono and Alexander Dimitrenko, Joseph Parker got his shot at a world title against Top Rank’s Andy Ruiz Jr. With the vacant WBO belt on the line, the two men fought a very closely contested and skilled heavyweight fight. The WBO belt went over the Kiwi’s shoulder in the end thanks to an extremely close and fair majority decision win. Again here Joseph Parker got a real quality win in the division, but again I felt a little apprehensive about it. The decision was fine, but Andy Ruiz Jr fights fat. He just doesn’t get in shape. He also faded badly in the middle of the fight before regaining some footing late. Just like with Takam, it felt like Parker’s opponent’s questionable conditioning was key to his victory.
Joseph Parker hasn’t exactly been inspiring afterward either. In May, the New Zealand titleholder fought a very tentative, non-committal fight against late replacement Razvan Cojanu. When he finally got in the ring with his original challenger Hughie Fury, Parker spent the next twelve rounds barely able to get anything done. He chased and lunged, but he didn’t land much at all. Fortunately for him, Fury didn’t land much either. Instead the British title challeger basically ran the whole time. I will note that I did score the “fight” for Hughie. With that said, it is hard to watch a fight like that and say either man deserved to win it.
That brings us up to speed as to where these men are in their respective careers. Anthony Joshua is on top and still has the aura of the ascendant. It feels like we haven’t seen his peak yet. Joseph Parker has somewhat lost that aura. He has picked up a few nice wins, but none of them particularly inspiring. His 2017 performances in particular haven’t exactly excited a lot of people.
Plus, the vaunted power that Parker was known for early hasn’t really proven itself to be true. He is a full size heavyweight and can hit hard, of course, but he isn’t a huge puncher for the division. Instead, what Joseph Parker is is a fluid athlete with good stamina and a general sense of coordination. Chasing a sprinting away Hughie Fury around the ring aside, he has shown good balance and works off a nice jab. Joseph Parker is a young heavyweight athlete with some boxing skll.
Is it enough against Anthony Joshua? AJ is big and muscular. He can’t have the overall fluidity to his game like Parker can, but he definitely has it where it is most important. The British unified titleholder has coordinated, educated, and very quick hands. His ability to punch quickly in combination with power is a sight to behold at his size and weight. He also hits harder than Joseph Parker, though neither of them are one punch knockout artists in truth.
I don’t think Parker is particularly competitive when viewing offensive ability in a vacuum, but defensively things do even up a bit. Parker can move around the ring in ways Joshua can’t. He also will stick his jab out more consistently as a move of its own. AJ has a nice jab too, but he mostly uses it to start combinations. Joseph Parker uses his more to manage distance. If he can get Anthony Joshua to reach a bit, there will certainly be opportunities for him to capitalize.
Yet, I don’t see him winning. These are big heavyweights with enough power to put each other away for sure, but Joshua just has too many advantages offensively. He has twice shown the ability to recover from adversity as well. Even if Parker gets some work in, we have every reason to believe that Joshua will recover and respond. My final bit of reasoning here is the stamina factor. I do believe Parker won his two biggest fights because the other guy tired. In spite of his frame, Anthony Joshua has been very much alive and successful deep into fights. If Joseph Parker couldn’t pull away on the cards without a late rally against the likes of Carlos Takam and Andy Ruiz Jr, what is he going to do with Anthony Joshua? Again, truly anything could happen here, but the smart money should be on the British superstar.
Showtime will only show the main event stateside, but Sky Box Office will have some real names on the undercard. Ryan Burnett, Alexander Povetkin, Josh Kelly, Joe Cordina, Anthony Crolla, and Joshua Buatsi will all be in action. Showtime’s coverage begins at 6 PM Eastern while the Sky show begins five hours earlier at 1 PM. I know I don’t have to tell anyone reading this not to miss this one.
