If you needed more proof over how hard, how much of a headache it can be for two sides to come together and thrash out a deal for a big fight, then look no further than the Joseph Parker Vs. Junior Fa all-New Zealand heavyweight battle. This a fight that may not happen now due to a dispute over gloves. As per a story from Newshub, the two sides are unwilling to budge, the two sides arguing over what kind of gloves should be used in the fight.
“It’s a deal breaker,” Parker’s promoter David Higgins said.
“Gloves are one of those battlegrounds of fairness,” said Fa’s manager Mark Keddell. “We think it’s pretty fair. I think the rest of the New Zealand public would think it’s pretty fair, wouldn’t they?”
Both sides should be allowed to pick whatever type of gloves they like, argues Higgins. But Keddell argues how boxing should be like UFC, where “everything is really even.”
“Everything’s really even in UFC,” Keddell stated. “It pits two men against each other and that’s what we want.”
But boxing is not UFC, counters Higgins:
“That’s maybe how UFC works,” Higgins said. “But it’s not how boxing works…..we’re not going to change the norms and the conventions and the history of boxing to please the Junior Fa camp.”
It would be a real shame – and a pretty petty one at that – if this gloves row ruined the fight. Though former WBO heavyweight champ Parker is looked at as a big favorite to win, fans in New Zealand really want to see this fight go down. Now it appears it will go under. If so, Parker, who has fought just once so far this year, will need a new opponent and fast if he’s to box again here in 2020. And the unbeaten Fa, who was looking to take a big step up in class, will also have to change his plans.
Hopefully, sanity and maturity will prevail and the Parker-Fa fight will get done after all. But again, nobody ever said it was easy to make a boxing match.