The Samoan-Kiwi, once an afterthought, challenges Daniel Dubois for the IBF heavyweight title this Saturday.
Gavan Casey HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING WILL always be a refuge for the unexpected even in an increasingly homogenised world of professional sport.
Joseph Parker’s trainer, Andy Lee, was naturally keen to ensure that this compulsion remains for his boxer’s challenge of Daniel Dubois when he joined both fighters and promoter Frank Warren several weeks ago to film a roundtable back-and-forth as part of the fight promotion. “Yeah”, said Lee, “but when you’re in the same position or under the same pressure, you will revert back to type.”
Lee, whose career as a fighter culminated in a middleweight world title and ended in 2017 with a record of 35-3-1 , has arguably become even more prominent as a ‘boxing mind’ in the years since, gaining popularity to either side of Ireland as a pundit and gradually becoming one of the world’s most sought-after trainers.
“Why is this culture in boxing?” he asked. “In MMA, a fighter taps out every fight. They’re not called cowards and can’t return! If a fighter does that to save his wellbeing, it’s like he can’t come back to the ring anymore, it’s like no one wants to see him again. That culture needs to change in boxing.”
As a beltholder in an era dominated by Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, the New Zealander had reached the Hillary Step of heavyweight boxing’s Everest: enough to say he had conquered the mountain but still one last push short of its true summit. Parker had previously become close with Tyson Fury after defeating The Gypsy King’s younger cousin, Hughie Fury, in a stinker of a title defence in 2017. The Gypsy King formed a kinship with Parker and, knowing intimately the troughs that can follow boxing’s peaks, made sure to keep Parker engaged in their sport during the Kiwi’s own years in relative obscurity.
Lee recognised in Parker similar traits to himself: the proud Samoan-Kiwi was, first and foremost, a grown-ass man, a father and husband whose priorities were already in check. A professional similarity, however, was the widespread perception of Parker as being “almost too nice” for his sport; a compliment in any other walk of life but a backhanded one to a boxer, and one at which Lee himself was forced to bristle for many years.
Lee still regrets that he didn’t pull Parker out of that fight about 10 days earlier when the Kiwi came down with a virus. While Parker had long since recovered by first bell, his illness had made a balls of things towards the end of camp. Parker knew it after a round, telling Lee he was “fucked”. Lee knew it too: the writing had probably been on the walls of the jacks in Morecambe a week earlier.
Lockhart assumed control of both S&C and food, helping Parker to achieve a physique with which he would able to withstand the demands of the boxing training that Lee believed necessary to turn him into a problem for the heavyweight division. Related Reads Lewis Crocker, Paddy Donovan, and the biggest all-Irish fight in living memory 'I'm not just some youngfella anymore. I feel like I'm maturing into a contender' 'Not that I let it get to me but at the same time, show her some damn respect' Parker recalls thinking simply, “Piss off.” He gave Wilder a beating.
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