Dillian Whyte and Joseph Parker meet Saturday afternoon for a good old fashion fight between heavyweight contenders. We don’t see enough of that these days, but we see it Saturday.
We do not see these fights enough. The heavyweight division has been down for some time talent wise without a doubt. Yet, just as big of a problem in my view is that the contenders that have existed do not fight one another. For a years men would build a record and then cash it out hopelessly against Wladimir or occasionally Vitaly Klitschko in the ring. Then, just as often as not, the disposed former contender would just fade off into obscurity. The division would have had the same talent problem that has plagued it for some time, but it would have been so much more alive if these contenders were fighting each other too instead of waiting safely for their big paydays.
This is why this matchup between Dillian Whyte (23-1, 17 KOs) and Joseph Parker (24-1, 18 KOs) is so refreshing to me. Here we have two top contenders in the heavyweight division meeting in the ring to advance their careers. Neither man is sitting around waiting for Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua, but both men are trying to instead force their hands by earning it in the ring and creating demand from the boxing audience. Granted this is in part because both men already lost to Joshua, but it is still happening regardless of circumstance. In the end on Saturday afternoon, one man will have his hand raised and be right in the thick of the division while the other will have to do some real soul searching.
Joseph Parker was a known heavyweight prospect for a few years, but it wasn’t until his big step up win against Carlos Takam in 2016 that we were able to get a firm read on him. Somewhat surprisingly, it was more of a mixed bag than expected. Takam, who will also be on this show and is an underrated fighter for sure, was expected by most to be a stepping stone for Parker. Instead it seemed to take the Cameroonian fading badly late for the young Kiwi to sneak away with the points win. After two step down wins, Joseph stepped back up to meet talented but perpetually overweight American Andy Ruiz Jr for a vacant world title. Yet again, the New Zealand native seemed a bit fortunate to get the win. The two men fought evenly in what was a toss up decision, but the narrative sort of became “imagine if Ruiz had shown up in shape.” Given how close the fight was with Ruiz having terrible cardio, it was natural speculation.
To make matters worse, Parker followed the Ruiz title win with a pair of dreadful defenses against late replacement Razvan Cojanu and Hughie Fury. The latter of which was so difficult to watch largely because of Hughie’s running, but Parker did not do himself any perception favors with his inability to catch the British contender and his amateurish, lunging attacks. By the time Joseph Parker met Anthony Joshua for three belt unification in Wales, he was a fading star despite being a young heavyweight titleholder. No one really expected him to threaten Joshua and he mostly didn’t. There were pockets of success in which Parker boxed well for minutes, but overall he was outclassed and appeared to be avoiding a fight at times.
No one left Dillian Whyte’s fight with Anthony Joshua thinking he was avoiding a fight. Of course, Whyte got the British superstar two and half years earlier when he was still a prospect. It isn’t an apples to apples comparison, but the fight still has to be discussed. Even though he was eventually finished in the seventh round, Dillian hurt Joshua early and put on a really solid performance before being finished himself. To this day the only man to push Joshua harder was Wladimir Klitschko and it has long been expected that we’d eventually see a rematch.
After the big breakthrough in a loss against AJ, Whyte stepped back down and built of his record a bit against regional level competition. A year and four fights later he took on Derek Chisora in a decent sized and well promoted domestic dust up. This was a bit of a worrying fight for me. Dillian was drawn into the crude sort of brawl that was the only sort of fight the very limited Chisora stood a chance in. Generally if you struggle with Derek Chisora, you aren’t a top contender, and Dillian struggled here. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great fight too. I’m just saying that that isn’t necessarily what you wanted to see if you were trying to evaluate Whyte as an elite heavyweight instead of just trying enjoy a scrap.
After the Chisora war, Whyte made his American debut at a lower level before returning home to beat Euro level contender Robert Helenius and former secondary titleholder Lucas Browne. The Browne fight was a dominant performance capped with an epic knockout. Unlike in the Chisora fight, Dillian was collected and measured. It showed in the ring. Of course, despite his recent struggles to entertain, Joseph Parker is much more of an athlete than an aging Lucas Browne could have hoped to have been in that fight. Was the performance a coming of age for the British contender or a mismatch disguised as a bout between contenders? Also, where in the world is Joseph Parker at mentally and physically at this point? Was it wise to jump right back in with another big fight?
The exciting part is that we get to find out answers to these questions. Two top ten heavyweights are just going to get into the ring and fight without the pageantry of belts. They are going to risk their status between the ropes. You can’t ask for anything else out of them, really. I suppose we could ask for a good fight in there too, but I have no idea what we’re getting on that front. Whyte has been exciting and Parker has not. How that mixes is anyone’s guess until the opening bell. As for who I think should be favored, I’d have to go with Whyte at this point. It is a pretty evenly matched fight, but stylistically Whyte will likely be coming forward. That will sway judges already likely predisposed to score for him in the UK.
As I mentioned above, Derek Chisora (28-8, 20 KOs) returns in the co-main event. He will meet the also aforementioned former Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua foe Carlos Takam (35-4-1, 27 KOs). To be blunt, I am not a big Chisora believer. He is likely positioned here to be a candidate to fight the main event winner, but I don’t think he can get by the always game Takam without an absolutely inspired performance. I just think Takam is the better fighter by some margin, even at 37.
Also in action will be the likes of popular female titleholder Katie Taylor, prospects like Joshua Buatsi, Anthony Fowler and Conor Benn, and domestically known fighters like Frank Buglioni. The show doesn’t have a US outlet, but will be broadcast in the UK on Sky Box Office starting at 1 PM Eastern. Hopefully someone picks it up stateside last minute. I don’t expect it to happen though given Hearn’s upcoming move to DAZN and with how that impacts the other networks. Regardless, it is 2018. You know what to do if you want to watch these fights, and you should be watching these fights.
