It was always going to be a tough job for Joseph Parker: he was never going to be able to send fight fans home as happy and as excited as they were last Saturday night. Parker’s rival, WBA and IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua, gave the world a thrill with his terrific rumble with Wladimir Klitschko, and today Parker had the far less interesting task of dealing with late replacement foe Razvan Cojanu.
Parker, the WBO champ won okay, but the New Zealander looked far from impressive in labouring to a 12 round decision win. Worst still, Parker, 22-0 (18) put fans to sleep. No, it wasn’t all Parker’s fault – Cojanu was a replacement for Hughie Fury (who pulled out of the Parker fight with a bad back ) and the unheralded challenger used all of his 6’7″ to lean on smaller man Parker. It made for a dull fight.
Parker will certainly get his share of criticism, and as he is talking big, calling out the likes of Joshua and Deontay Wilder, maybe he should expect some criticism. Should Parker really have been taken all 12 rounds by Cojanu, a man who, in his previous biggest fight, got stopped inside a couple of rounds by Donovan Dennis? Would Joshua or Wilder have allowed the Romanian to hear the final bell?
Parker is still a young fighter and champion, so he has time to grow and improve. But basing things on today’s poor showing, improve he must; in a major way. Is Parker a big enough puncher to be able to deal with either AJ or Wilder? Is Parker big and strong enough physically to be able to beat the very best?
The very best? Right now, with Tyson Fury out of action (soon to return though; hopefully in July) Joshua and Wilder are the two proven best champions – in that order.
You are only as good as your last fight, so the old boxing adage says. In that case, Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker really are worlds apart.
All Results:
Results: Joseph Parker W 12 Razvan Cojanu
Umar Salamov W TKO 4 Emil Markic
Tim Tszyu W TJO 2 Ivana Siau