Hey remember Carlos Takam? Remember when he fought Joseph Parker that time? Remember? It was Joe’s first major step up in opponents and also the fight that earned him the interim title shot against Andy Ruiz later on in 2016. Kind of a big deal in the history of New Zealand boxing, to be honest.

Well since losing that fight by unanimous decision in Manukau he’s had a bit of time off and then returned with two fights this year, knocking out both Marcin Rekowski and Ivica Bacurin. Nothing special. Next up he’s gonna be fighting Anthony Joshua.

No kidding, Kubrat Pulev has injured his shoulder and been forced to withdraw from the October 28 card. Pulev was Joshua’s mandatory challenger for the IBF heavyweight title belt and in his absence they’ve picked the next available bloke on the list… who just so happens to be Monsieur Takam. It’s a tough ask, less than two weeks out from the fight, but Takam and his team were already being kept on standby just in case (when you’re Anthony Joshua, you can do that). It’s not indicative of anything else but it’s pretty funny that after everything we’ve been through in the year and a half since Parker vs Takam, it’s the Frenchman who’ll get to fight AJ first.

Which is not a bad thing either. The Takam fight is still arguably the best performance of Joe Parker’s career. Parker’s undoubtedly improved since then but he hasn’t shown it fully over 12 rounds for whatever reason – like, it helped that unlike other blokes he’s fought recently, Takam was willing to stand there and take a punch or two – while King Carlos, as a fighter in his mid-30s, is unlikely to have made any drastic changes to his style since then. He already knew who he was as a boxer back then and it’ll be the same bloke who steps into the ring with AJ in a couple weeks.

(Takam will also be the first serious opponent of Parker’s to go on to any kind of relevant fight afterwards. It’s too soon for Hughie Fury, Andy Ruiz has been inactive all 2017, Razvan Cojanu isn’t at that level and Alexander Dimitrenko only embarrassed himself in NZ – although Frans Botha did almost tangle with the Fury security when Higgins performed his stage rush routine in Manchester).

Now, you won’t find many people out there who consider Parker a better heavyweight than Joshua at this time. However you will find a lot of people clamouring for that fight to happen. Joshua vs Parker, it’d be a showdown. Joshua vs Takam is a bit of a glimpse towards that eventual matchup – Takam will be the first fighter that the pair have in common across their 19-0 (19 KO) and 24-0 (18 KO) careers (guess which is which…). He’ll give Joshua exactly what he gave Parker. Make sure you get the magnifying glass out to compare every detail.

It’s still a bitch for Joshua to have been preparing for the 6 foot four (and a half) Kubrat Pulev and instead he’ll be fighting ol’ 6’1 Takam. Even if Takam is a slightly weaker opponent – though nowhere near as much weaker as this fight could’ve been – this will definitely test Joshua’s mentality and raw ability, as well as his trainers and their on-their-toes fight planning. No doubt they’ll be checking that tape of Parker vs Takam, for one thing. YouTube is a great public service.

Eddie Hearn: “I received a call from Kalle Sauerland [Pulev’s promoter] late afternoon to inform me that Pulev had injured his shoulder and may be ruled out of the fight. This was later confirmed by his doctor. IBF rules state that the mandatory will go to the next fighter in line, which is Carlos Takam. When the Pulev fight was announced I made a deal with Takam’s team to begin camp and be on standby for this fight. When I called them this evening they were overjoyed and good to go.”

But AJ can’t complain, this is the game. Joseph Parker had to find a replacement at short notice when Hughie Fury got injured. That replacement Razzy Cojanu and the fight was something of a stinker. He then finally got around to Hughie Fury under completely different circumstances and that fight wasn’t much of a spectacle either. You just can’t control these things.  

Deontay Wilder too. He had to convince his promoters to pay a hefty fee to Bermane Stiverne to push back his mandatory challenge (and risk it against Dominic Breazeale) so that he could fight Luis Ortiz in what he believed would be a more competitive bout. Stiverne was the dude he was supposed to fight. He’s already beaten him once and he wanted the bigger challenge. They got it done.

And then what happened? Luis Ortiz tested positive for a couple naughty substances and his career is left in tatters now. People didn’t wanna fight him before because he hit so damn hard. Then they couldn’t fight him because he wouldn’t settle on a promoter. Now nobody wants to fight him because of the multiple PED suspensions. You only get so many chances, right?

Meanwhile Deontay Wilder will enter the ring on November 4 in Brooklyn, a week after Joshua-Takam, to take on… Bermane Stiverne. Yeah, he’s back where he started. What’s more is that, after Alexander Povetkin and Andrzej Wawrzyk, Ortiz is now the third consecutive fighter to fail a drugs test after agreeing to fight Deontay Wilder. It’s almost ironic given that Wilder is the one bloke out there in the division actively trying to arrange the best and most challenging fights imaginable.

Deontay Wilder: “People make so many excuses for my career. The one who is actually trying to make a legacy out of their career, he’s the only one who’s not complaining. The people who don’t have to get in the ring and endure this suffering are the ones that are complaining.”

Fair play to Joshua and Parker, you know, they don’t have to fight each other right now. This Takam fight is enough of a salivator for now. There’s nothing wrong with booking strategic fights and Parker is likely to take on the winner of David Haye vs Tony Bellew II next up while Anthony Joshua will be busy, having presumably defended his IBF mandatory, turning his attention to defending his WBA mandatory. Deontay Wilder would happily fight either, especially Anthony Joshua. But chances are he’ll have to go through Dillian Whyte first. So it goes.

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