Really, this one was never in doubt. Joseph Parker was always expected to win against Alexander Flores, probably not as easy as he ended up doing but you know what I mean. The job was not to beat the dude, it was to beat him with enough style to convince people that he’s adapting for a future at the top of a heavyweight division. Parker’s never going to be a Wilder/Joshua knockout artist but his last two defeats have exposed an overly timid approach that had been sneaking into his game for a while. Gotta make that adjustment.

Basically he needed to knock this joker out. Put him on the canvas and get people talking. He needed to balance his quick feet and hand speed with more power, enough to give him the confidence to unleash his right hand some more. There was no doubt in my opinion that Parker won the Ruiz and H.Fury fights but the fact that people (fans of the other blokes, mostly) were debating those decisions is a sign that he wasn’t forcing the issue enough. Against Anthony Joshua he didn’t get the chance as AJ shut it down with a conservative fight strategy but against Dillian Whyte he had that one. He had it if only he’d stepped it up earlier and given himself the time he needed to get the KO.

Alexander Flores slid by with an impressive record of 17-1-1 with 15 KOs but he’d never fought anyone close to Parker’s level. The best fight on his pro record is against Charles Martin and he was dropped for good in the fourth round of that one. Charles Martin was demolished by Anthony Joshua in 2016 and was most recently beaten by Adam Kownacki. A good fighter but not as good as Parker, based on their common opponents. And anyway he whupped Flores so what was Flores going to do against Joseph Parker?

Nothing would be the short answer to that question. While Joseph Parker turned up to the weigh in looking pleasantly shredded, an indication that he’d been building back that muscle in the gym (he came in at 109.3, half a kilo lighter than against Whyte), Flores looked like just another battler. He has the exact same height and reach as Dillian Whyte but is 9.5kgs lighter and based on his inability to do anything more than push Parker’s head with his fist a few times that weight difference was pretty much all absent muscle. For most of the opening round it was a cagey battle of cat and mouse, as is often the case, but then as soon as Parker launched the first right arm over the top of his searching lead left jab the writing was on the wall. Oh, we’re in for one of those fights. Right then.

It took until the end of the third round and we were done. Parker’s plan was clearly to go hard at the body of his opponent and he was warned in the second for a low blow. He then threw several more debatably low ones before really clocking the bloke in the bollocks in the third, right before he donged him over the head and dropped him to his knees. Flores got up and Parker went chop, chop, chop. A sustained flurry of shots to the head and this sucker was all over, best get the car started because it’s time to go home. Don’t forget to tip the valet.

So we ticked the box for a commanding knockout. This was Parker’s first victory since September 2017 against Hughie Fury and it was his first knockout victory since Alexander Dimitrenko in October 2016. I was never one who questioned Parker’s desire to keep fighting so that wasn’t something I felt the need to look for. Similarly I also wasn’t one of the majority of kiwi boxing journos who seemed to think that consecutive defeats had his career hanging by a thread or anything. Like, he lost to a couple better fighters. That’s usually what happens when you fight better dudes. Didn’t mean he wasn’t still top ten in the division.

Which is why I also can’t really buy into the hype that’s being chucked around in some of the write-ups out there, about Parker being back in heavyweight contention or whatever. Like, he beat a dude who was clearly several levels of ability below him… nothing has changed. Let’s not get carried away.

Ah but what we did see from Parker was a fair bit of unexpected mongrel. The low blows were not deliberate, that was more a consequence of his focus on body shots, but I’ve got no doubt that it was a specific plan to push the boundaries a bit. Think about his last few fights. Razvan Cojanu took him out of rhythm by getting dirty and playing games. Dillian Whyte copped him with a shot to the head that was classed as a knockdown but shouldn’t have been and it changed the course of that fight.

Joe Parker’s a nice bloke. He’s full of sportsmanship, full of respect. And maybe that gets taken advantage of. I don’t really want to see him going full Dennis Rodman and turning into the bad guy but I do see the merits of a more aggressive approach. After all, it’s the ref’s job to sort all that out. If he crosses the line then they can stop things and drop a little warning, as they did. The nut shots made no difference to the outcome of the fight other than speeding it up but they do mark a change in mindset from Joseph Parker now. And it shouldn’t be a surprise, they said it all along in the build-up: No more Mr Nice Guy.

So much in boxing is about narratives and perception. Parker doesn’t have to fight dirty the rest of his career and maintain this, but maybe he did have to show that he’s capable of it. I think this was more of a symbolic shifting into Phase Three of his career, where a man who has withstood two of the most powerful men in world boxing is free to find his ideal balance of power and speed, knowing as he now does where his limits lie. Phase One was the early days of knocking out pub battlers. Phase Two was Carlos Takam to Dillian Whyte. Phase Three… Phase Three starts now and only time will tell how far it can go.

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