Two boxers will enter the ring as world champions on March 31st this year, but one will no longer hold that title when he leaves the Principality Stadium in the UK that day. So, who will come out on top in that fight between Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua?
Let’s throw some light on the Joshua v Parker predictions and find out who has a better chance of winning the highly anticipated fight on March 31.
About the fighters and their chances.
Joshua enjoys a flawless record as he successfully managed to defend his IBO, IBF and WBA belts causing a 10th round stoppage and win over Carlos Takam in October, 2017. In addition, he’s a widely acclaimed Olympic gold medallist who has a 20-0 record till now with all those 20 victories coming through stoppages. Everyone expects him to follow in the Lennox Lewis’ footsteps, by unifying all the heavyweight titles of the world.
Talking about Joshua’s opponent Joseph Parker, the current WBO heavyweight champion, the latter also holds an unbeaten record till now. He hails from New Zealand and has won each one of his past fights, causing 18 stoppages. His last outing was in fact in the UK only, when he took an undefeated Hughie Fury, in September 2017. Parker retained his belt courtesy a majority decision, but the fight proved to be the toughest one of his pro career.
It’s worth mentioning here that Joshua holds a significant 2-inch height advantage and a phenomenal 6-inch reach advantage over the Kiwi, going into this bout. It implies that Parker would need some special skills to reach the Brit’s face and might also need to face some decent blows along the way. Many believe this will be the biggest problem for him. Although Parker has shown time and again that he can take decent punches, he is yet to be hit by someone of Joshua’s calibre.
The accuracy and power of the former Olympian is even bettered by his sheer athleticism. Joshua doesn’t come across as a cumbersome heavyweight fighter, throwing punches without paying any attention to technique and footwork. He moves fairly well for a boxer of his size. And his earlier opponents do remember the power of his punches. The doubts over his cardio and punch-taking abilities are both valid, however, the rumors that his chin is weak is nothing short of ridiculous. We are talking about heavyweight boxing and someone with a weak chin can’t survive that long.
Agreed that Joshua was brought to the floor by Wladimir Klitschko during their epic bout in 2017 and faced a very tough time in the ring against Dillian Whyte, but Parker would need to come up with something very different to stop a notable heavyweight fighter with such a brilliant past record.
Nothing denying that Parker has excellent conditioning, fast hands and does pack a good punch, but he is yet to prove if he can stop top level fighters in this particular division.
