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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Professional boxing and exaggerated hype goes together like crackers & cheese and fish & chips.
Hype is a two-edged sword. Just ask Shane Cameron, who called David Tua “a fat old man who was past his best” before their showdown in 2009 - with Tua ending the fight in a brutal flash in the early stages of round two.
However the latest hype coming from the Joseph Parker camp, leading up to his next contest on March 9 in Saudi Arabia, appears on the mark.
The Kiwi ex WBO Heavyweight world champion, is set to lock horns with Chinese Zhilei Zhang in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which his camp is calling his biggest pivotal fight to date.
Saudi Arabian oil money has changed the heavyweight boxing landscape, with the Saudi’s looking to diversify their economy, and attract tourism through massive sporting events.
The new heavyweight order, kicked off with the heavyweight world title fight between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz (who Parker beat for the WBO world title) in Saudi Arabia in 2019.
Truckloads of money, have provided the incentive for some of the best boxers on the planet, to display their skills in a country where democracy is considered a foreign word.
The three big heavyweight names that the Saudi’s see as money-making machines at present are; Oleksandr Usyk who holds three of the four world title belts, Tyson Fury who owns the WBC title, and former unified champion Anthony Joshua.
Standing just outside the big three are a group eying the mega money fights, with the self belief of being good enough to challenge any of the big three.
Joseph Parker, Zhang, Daniel Dubois, Filip Hrgovic, Joe Joyce and a bevy of undefeated heavyweights, are on the cusp of success and glory once Usyk, Fury and Joshua sort out the titles currently on the line.
Parker rekindled his career with a stoppage victory over former world champion and knockout artist, Deontay Wilder, last December.
Zhilei Zhang brings strong credentials to his showdown with Joseph Parker.
Just a solitary loss, to Hrgovic, is the only stain of defeat on the Chinese pugilist’s record. Zhang burst into the spotlight with two stoppage victories over Brit Joe Joyce. The British contender beat Parker in stopping him for the only time in his career.
Logic could say, Zhang beat Joyce who beat Parker, meaning that the Chinese boxer should beat the New Zealander.
However, styles make fights and Joseph Parker showed in his demolition of Deontay Wilder that he has plenty of firepower in his arsenal.
The Parker contest with Zhang is billed for the interim WBO title, which would seem to have as much credibility as a Watties Baked Bean boxing title.
The major attraction of the interim tile, is that Zhang or Parker if he wins, have the first right of challenge for the WBO crown currently held by Usyk.
The 64 Million dollar question is who will win the Parker v Zhang contest.
I honestly don't know, believing it is a fifty-fifty odds fight.
It will be the fighter who shows up on the night with the biggest hunger for victory with the bout likely to be over before the regulation twelve rounds.
