Joseph Parker’s next fight will be an IBF elimination bout against Cameroonian Carlos Takam at some point in May. No date has been set, nor any venue, but the fight is a massive step forward for Parker as he and his DUCO handlers look to make good on their promises for 2016.

The big factor here is the elimination bout thing. What that means is that the winner of this fight will place themselves as the mandatory challenger for the IBF world heavyweight title belt, which is currently held by Charles Martin. The IBF belt’s been a bit of a Forrest Gump recently, popping up around all these famous faces. It was held by Wladimir Klitschko for 19 consecutive defences until his defeat to Tyson Fury, though Fury had to quickly vacate it in order to get the rematch with Wlad. Vyacheslav Glazkov was a mandatory challenger (the same position Parker is fighting to be in) and that potential fight clashed with the Klitschko rematch so the belt was vacated. Charles Martin then beat Glazkov in a third round TKO and will defend the belt in April against… Anthony Joshua.

Yeah, Parker’s proposed rival. The two have had some very unconvincing back and forth banter over a possible fight down the line, neither of them carrying anything resembling a Muhammad Ali level of eloquence and charisma. They’re both just genuine dudes and the showmanship doesn’t really do them justice as the superb, heavy hitting knockout artists that they are. Why talk the talk when you already walk the walk? Well, there is a reason for that. While the gimmickry is all pretty silly, it has gone and given Parker a profile in the UK sporting scene, where Joshua’s rise is paralleled with Parker’s own in NZ – except on a much bigger scale.

And should they each go and win their next bouts then they really will be fighting and it’ll be for a belt too. But maybe pump the brakes on the Parker title fight because it could almost a year before that mandatory bout is scheduled, giving Joshua or Martin time for as many as 2-3 arranged defences before facing either Parker or Takam. Same goes for Parker, who won’t want to sit idle until the January 16, 2017 date – which is the latest the mandatory defence can occur. Of course, they could always book it straight away after the title bout but things tend not to work that swiftly. Parker and Joshua are desperate to fight though, so who knows? (BTW, Martin is no pushover, he’s backing himself to teach Joshua a real lesson).

World boxing is a bit of a shambles with the different belts all run by different namesake organisations, but the IBF is not the one in which Parker recently rose to first ranked challenger, that was the WBO belt held currently by Fury. Don’t expect much on that front any time soon, clearly the IBF is the path they’ve targeted – which makes perfect sense given as it’s kinda wide open since Fury gave up the belt. And Fury is a dude worth avoiding for now, dodge that rickety hype wagon and the mess it leaves in its trail.

Parker is ranked sixth in the IBF and Takam fifth. This fight comes about because they’re the two highest ranked contenders. Martin is the holder, Joshua is fourth and already getting his fight. The first two ranks are vacant and third placed brawler Erkan Teper is currently under investigation for doping offences. It all sorta fell into place, really. Parker’s also ranked sixth in the WBC, 12th in the WBA, 15th on FightNews.com and doesn’t feature on The Ring’s top ten. (Although he did feature on the shortlist for their Prospect of the Year award in December: “Hard-hitting New Zealand heavyweight punched his way through five capable opponents, none of whom managed to extend the 23-year-old beyond four rounds.”)

Guys like Alexander Povetkin, Luis Ortiz, Ruslan Chagaev and, yes, Fury and Klitschko don’t feature on the IBF top 15 list. Instead you’re looking at a lot of journeymen pugilists and the up and comers like Parker, Joshua and Martin. This trio, these are guys who haven’t yet been tested. We know this about Joseph Parker, it’s become a punchline (literally?), some of the guys he’s fought. But most fighters start out that way, it’s not like there are world contenders all around the place ready to fly to NZ to maybe get knocked out by some rookie with a brutal right hand. All three of those dudes are undefeated and Martin is the oldest at 29. His fight against Anthony Joshua is expected to be huge in Britain. Like, enormous. Tickets sold out in 90 seconds. That’s a ride worth hitching onto if you’re Joseph Parker.

Right but first of all Joe needs to take care of Carlos Takam, who is a damn fine boxer, easily the best guy he’ll have faced in the ring to date. Date, yeah. They need one of those. Parker was supposed to fight on April 17 in Christchurch but this fight will come in May so that one’s been cancelled. So you can take from that that this eliminator bout wasn’t always in the plans so soon, which would make sense since as recently as late January it was expected that Joshua would be getting the eliminator against Takam – only to end up skipping straight to a title shot instead. At the time Sky Sports UK reported that, they quoted Dean Lonergan (on behalf of Parker, the most likely next cab off the rank – which proved true):

"We would more than likely like to take that fight," said Lonergan. "If we were to take that fight and win, we'll go to No 1 mandatory ahead of Anthony Joshua."

That was on the basis that Joshua declined the fight in order to pursue a different belt. He didn’t and instead everyone else moved up one. Regardless, they’ve definitely tried to play up the Joshua-Parker thing and that’s mutual with Joshua’s team too.

Lonergan on Feb 15:

"The fact that Anthony Joshua is talking about us. Six months ago, we weren't on the radar. Now all of a sudden we are and that has got to be a good thing. But we are on the radar for a reason and that is because we've got the No 1 [position] in the WBO and it's our intention to have the No 1 in the IBF as well. Here's the deal, at some stage Anthony Joshua is not going to be able to avoid us.”

The IBF have to offer these fights to the teams in order to keep their belts competitive. Can’t have guys ducking and dodging. But negotiations don’t always go through, they have 30 days to sort the bout or they give it to the next best dude. Effectively that’s what’s happening here. The first two places are open because of the current organised bouts (open for the winners to claim, effectively) and it’s up to the organisation to suggest the eliminator matchups. You know, so it doesn’t get farcical. DUCO and Parker did have to wait for it to come to them.

Where they fight will be interesting. Takam is based in France and of his 36 professional bouts, all but three have been fought in France, Belgium or the French-Caribbean island of Martinique. He drew with Mike Perez in Canada, lost to Alexander Povetkin in Russia and most recently beat George Arias in Italy. It’s believed that DUCO are scrapping hard to get the bout in New Zealand but it may not be a terrible thing to go and fight overseas again, since if he does get a go with either Martin or Joshua, you can 99.9% expect that one to take place in either America or England, depending on which of them he’s facing.

Hmm, but the overlooked factor here is that man Takam. While we kiwis get all excited about a possible title bout, remember that he does need to win this fight first. Takam is a proper fighter. He’s not lining up Paul Gallen, he’s a genuine athlete. Here, take a look:

He’s 35 years old with over a decade’s experience and a record of 33 wins, 2 losses and a draw. His fight with Povetkin, who’s currently the mandatory challenger for Deontay Wilder’s WBC belt (and will be Wilder’s toughest fight yet after a couple of underwhelming defences – though it’s hit a few speedbumps in the organisation), was an absolute battle. Takam lost that one but gave the big Russian a fascinating and entertaining go. He took some heavy hits and he dealt a few out of his own, Parker has the strength to go with anyone in the world but he’ll never have faced a guy like this before. This guy is smart, he gives up power and speed to Parker but he knows how to work a guy around. We’ll need to see a tidier performance from Joe. His defence is definitely gonna be tested. However this is probably just on the safe side of his capabilities at this stage.  

Takam got that Povetkin fight after his commendable draw with Mike Perez, followed by his stopping Tony Thompson by unanimous decision. Against the Russian, Takam was throwing half as many punches but did appear to be leading midway through, with the judges all seeing it as tied after eight. Povetkin copped a few hits from the organised Cameroonian but knocked him down in the ninth and then rocked him to the floor in the tenth for the KO.

This is a huge step up for Parker but it’s a massive fight for Takam too. He’s only fought three times since the Povetkin fight, all wins against middling battlers. Had he beaten Povetkin then he’d have been close to a go at Bermane Stiverne. A win over Parker would put his career right back on track.

Interestingly, Parker and Takam do share a couple of victims. Two early TKOs in Parker’s career were dealt to Frans Botha and Marcelo Luiz Nascimento. Takam TKO’d Botha fifteen months before Parker did and his first fight after the Povetkin loss was a knockout of Nascimento.

In Parker’s favour is a slight height advantage but far more relevant is his age. Given how Takam got ground down in the long run against Povetkin, if Parker can endure a long one then he knows his opponent will tire. The problem there being that Parker has only ever twice gone the distance in a bout and this doesn’t really compare to Sherman Williams or Brice Ritani Coe. But it’s a step up, it’s supposed to be a new challenge. Parker should be favourite but Takam is a dangerous opponent and he cannot afford to get distracted by the gold in the distance like we are. 

Next step is to sort a date, a venue and the other little details. The respective teams have three weeks left to sort that out but given what each is fighting for there’s no way they don’t come to an arrangement. Look, we wanted tougher fights for him. This is that. Pretty bloody exciting, really.