Answering All Those Joseph Parker Questions After His Defeat To Dillian Whyte
Where To Now For Joe?
This is the big question, ain’t it? And it’s tough to say what’ll happen. The only guarantee is that Joe’s going home to spend time with his family and everything after that is up in the air. David Higgins reckons he’s already got some options for the comeback and that’s about right too. Parker may have lost a couple bouts but he didn’t disgrace himself in either. In fact by losing with dignity he’s probably won over a lot of those fickle British boxing fans.
Don’t anticipate a rematch since Whyte took this fight to prove he deserves bigger ones. Parker’s gonna need to work his way back up to fighting in title bouts and title-adjacent bouts again but there are heaps of other wannabe contenders just below him looking to prove they’re worth rising up in the ranks. They might see Parker as beatable now.
Finding opponents is the easy part. It’s finding opponents that match Duco’s vision for where Parker now stands and how marketable he should be that might be tricky, depending on how realistic their view of those things are. He really needs to win a couple to get back in the groove so dispatching some of those sorta third tier types sounds decent. Got that Bryant Jennings fight as a possibility thanks to Top Rank. Maybe even Dereck Chisora with Eddie Hearn and Davie Higgins’ bromance. Or something easier, another Razvan Cojanu level of opponent who’ll give him a good test without ever threatening to win. We’ll find out down the line but don’t expect anything until at least December, most likely early 2019.
Where Did The Dillian Whyte Fight Go Wrong?
The middle ten rounds weren’t great. First and twelfth were great but the rest not so much. Whyte is a strong bugger and he got into this one with some powerful counter-punching and aggressive tactics bordering on Aussie cricket scheming. Parker wasn’t intimidated but he also wasn’t ruthless enough to stop Whyte from doing all that. Then head clash that knocked him down the first time seemed to wobble him, particularly after a rough bit of refereeing not to score it as accidental.
It’s not that Parker started whinging, however he did kinda stand back and wait for the ref to step in a few times and that wasn’t ever gonna happen. Gotta be more forthcoming than that. Gotta not let his opponent wrestle the momentum away from him. Once Whyte got on top of this, Parker was stranded as he lacked the power to change the course of the bout and it wasn’t until the last round, with Whyte absolutely exhausted, that he finally broke through.
And therein lies the frustration because he could’ve won this sucker. He could’ve controlled the fight with his superior speed and fitness and then cashed in as Whyte tired. But you can’t say anything about all that without more importantly giving Whyte heaps of credit for roughing Parker up, something not even Anthony Joshua could manage to do (tbf he didn’t really try but still). Whyte won this with a superior performance. Can’t go moaning when the best man won.
Does Joe Need To Bring The Mongrel Next Time?
Nah, that’s not who he is. Even his trash talk is respectful. It’s not in his nature to stoop to gamesmanship so we shouldn’t be demanding that of him – it simply isn’t going to bring out the best of him. There are concerns about how well he deals with that from other jokers, see Whyte and Cojanu, but those are tactical things. Parker’s a nice bloke who gives it a swing in the ring. That’s refreshing in the hyper personality driven world of boxing and it’d be a shame to lose it. Let’s be honest, people are only saying this because he lost and he lost because he got beat down by an extremely powerful and extremely talented world title contender… not because he got elbowed a couple times, had some mean words said about him, and got pushed into the ropes.
What Was The Fight Plan That He Supposedly Didn’t Execute?
First off, this is the kind of thing that fighters say all the time after a loss. It protects their trainers and it protects their ability and it’s a way of deflecting immediate pressure for the defeat.
Whatever the plan was, it probably had a lot to do with how comfortable he looked in round one, moving Whyte around, getting inside with his jab but staying quick enough on his feet to get back out and avoid the counters. Then he started to get hit with a few counters. Then he got headbutted and dropped. The rest was history and you’d have to think that the reason he couldn’t stick to the plan was that he got pretty bloody well stung.
Not that he was daunted by Whyte’s power, just that he was hurt and therefore couldn’t maintain that earlier pace. If that was the sole extent of the fight plan then it’s clearly not much of a fight plan – as if Dillian Whyte was never going to hit him – but it could be that they underestimated how hard he could throw them. How many times had Parker been knocked down before? None. Anthony Joshua brought a conservative plan to that fight and nobody else he’s stepped with has been able to hurt him. This was something new and once he realised it was getting away from him in the middle rounds, it was almost like he was dazed or lacking in urgency.
Theory: He was wounded and took too long to adapt to that.
Will This Affect The Joseph Parker/Kevin Barry Partnership?
The short answer is absolutely not. Parker and Barry are as loyal to each other as it gets, they’re practically family. Check out the ring team on the weekend, you had Parker and his brother with Barry and his brother and also his son. Rather entangled there. Plus neither’s about to fall out over this defeat. Parker believes in Barry’s fight plans and Barry believes in Parker’s ability. There’s a zero percent chance that they split for any boxing reasons.
The more pertinent question might be *should* this affect the partnership. Maybe Barry’s coached the power out of Parker’s hands. Maybe Barry’s working him too hard or not hard enough, which affected his endurance against Whyte. Maybe Barry’s got unreasonable expectations. Maybe he’s done all he can do for him and things have gotten stale. Or maybe Kevin Barry’s a notorious figure in kiwi boxing so he’s the first scapegoat people turn to instead of the very likeable Joseph Parker.
So Joseph Parker Can Be Knocked Down After All?
Yeah, who knew. But just keep in mind that Dillian Whyte also knocked down Anthony Joshua when they fought and he’s a much improved slugger since then. He nearly left a body on the canvas when he took on Lucas Browne recently (on the undercard of Joshua-Parker). At a guess I’d say that only Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz hit harder than Dillian Whyte, with Joshua somewhere on par with him. It’s not like Parker got decked by Shane Cameron on the weekend or anything.
Did Parker Rush Into This Fight Too Soon After Losing To Anthony Joshua?
I wouldn’t say he was underprepared, although he did seem to run out of steam even despite finishing by far the stronger fighter. But he might have been under-motivated. Coming down from the exalted heights of the Joshua fight and the disappointment of losing his belts he had to be hungry but maybe not as hungry as Dillian Whyte, who’s long felt disrespected in trying to organise fights exactly like this one. No doubt that Whyte was the more desperate man in that ring.
That doesn’t mean it was the wrong call though. We knew that this was brave from both fighters and courage is always something we applaud in this sport. Each had a lot to lose. Parker obviously figured there was no point pissing around when his aim is to get back to AJ ASAP. Still you do wonder if a keep-busy fight in between wouldn’t have gone astray, just to build the confidence, especially when AJ seems to be booked up for the foreseeable future regardless with Povetkin and then probably Wilder.
Where Does Parker Sit In The Heavyweight Ranks After This?
Okay there are two guys who stand above: Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. The two belt-holders have earned that respect but as to where Parker sits, that might depend on where Dillian Whyte sits. Whyte’s last two years or so have seen him lay a case that he’s next in line after the top two. You’ve also got fellas like Luis Ortiz, Alexander Povetkin, Kubrat Pulev and Jarrell Miller in the conversation. I’m not giving Tyson Fury anything until he beats a top ten fighter again but Dereck Chisora’s got himself back in the conversation after beating Carlos Takam in a belter. Dan Rafael of ESPN had Parker fourth before the Whyte fight, this defeat probably drops him back into the 6-8 range. He’s still right up there but he can’t justify being top five after back to back defeats. But I’d still back him against the likes of Dominic Breazeale or Bryant Jennings for sure.
Is He Still Planning on Retiring in Five Years?
Yup. Which means that his career path remains massively condensed. If he retires at 31 or 32 then he’s walking away at a time when most boxers are hitting their peak. Deontay Wilder is 32 now. Wladimir Klitschko was still in all-time great form in his late-30s. Old mate George Forman even won a heavyweight title at 45. We don’t know for sure that Parker will follow through on this when time comes to pass but right now that’s definitely his plan. It’s easy to forget that he’s already achieved so much but is still just 26 years old.
Hey But Aren’t We All Forgetting About Someone?
Yes, we might be. Junior Fa’s not nearly in the same realms as Parker is yet and he hasn’t been entirely convincing in his last couple fights but he’s looking in great shape these days and has cracked into 12th place on the WBO heavyweight rankings so while he’s got nothing to do with Parker in the meantime, this is as good a time as any to point out that he’ll be getting some legit fights on the back of this new ranking so if you’ve got Parker fatigue then here’s the basket where you might wanna store those eggs for a while.