Joseph Parker Knocked Shawndell Winters Out Nice And Emphatically, How About That?
You can’t do a whole lot more than to knock a fella out, right? Joseph Parker and Kevin Barry always talk about how Joe’s gonna knock a bugger out before every fight but here he actually did it. He came out fighting sharply on the front foot, leaning into that jab from the opening bell and then bringing that hammer of a right hand over the top once he’d set it all up. He was busy and active, aggressive in dictating the fight. He cruised to take the first three rounds including dropping the fella at the end of that third.
Shawndell Winters is a legit brawler though. He got into the fight game late but he’s had some big upset wins in recent times to launch himself into this position. Fourth round and he figured some things out, luring Parker into the ropes and copping him with a few upper cuts out of the clinch. Some heavy counters. Enough that Parker came out of that fourth round with a cut over his right eye, not really ideal. However then Joe put the ol’ clobber on the accelerator and roughed him up to get the stop in the fifth round. It was a four punch combo that put him on the canvas, quick left jab and a right hook then a windmill left before going through the gate with the right to nudge him down, but it was the stinging right hook prior to that which did the damage. Winters wobbled for a split second and Parker came straight back in for the kill.
That’s the main thing to love about that performance. Parker took his sweet time in dispatching with Alex Leapai last time out as he eventually got a grinding stoppage in the eighth round but here he showed a propensity for closing a fight out that we haven’t really seen from him since... ever? Like, most of those early knockouts were just him being a class above. They were inevitable rather than sudden and ruthless as he was against Winters, spotting an opportunity and taking it. This was a side of Joe Parker which he probably needs to show more of if he’s gonna have success against other top ten heavyweights... he won’t knock them out like this but think how different the Dillian Whyte fight might have been if he’d been more aggressive from the outset rather than falling behind early on the cards and chasing the fight from there on.
So that’s all cool. It’s not necessarily gonna dictate how he’d go against the man-giants Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury but those are hills he’ll have to climb if and when he gets there. Shawndell Winters is basically a cruiserweight... he had to fight up at 94.3kgs, the second lightest opponent Parker has ever fought (the lightest being Dontay Patu way back in February 2013 in his fourth pro bout). Meanwhile Parker himself, who also had a couple inches of height advantage and more than a decade of age, weighed in at his heaviest since Razvan Cojanu and Andy Ruiz Jr. He dropped down 4kgs to fight Joshua, preferring to be light on his feet, and has been working his way back up since. We didn’t see him fight into the late rounds here but he looked good on his feet so no dramas there. Parker’s always gonna have quick hands and nifty feet and not even a spider bite could compromise that (apparently the scar on his leg was still visible from ringside).
If Parker had lost then his career could have been in tatters but it only took thirty seconds to realise that was unlikely to happen (actually the 17kg difference at weigh-in may have been the no-pun-intended tipping point). But he got a good win, a commanding performance, a solid evening in the spotlight (even if he was only on the undercard). In fact he did enough that Eddie Hearn’s now talking about an extension to his three-fight Matchroom contract which is pretty helpful because there’s not much they can achieve with the last fight on this current deal otherwise.
Think about it for a second, Anthony Joshua just locked in Kubrat Pulev for 20 June at Tottenham Stadium in London for his mandatory IBF title defence. Meanwhile Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder III is gonna happen because there was another rematch clause in the contract and that’ll take place most likely in July. A short enough turnaround that the winners of those fights, particularly if it’s Joshua vs Fury, can meet in December for a super duper unification bout. That’s awesome for boxing... not as awesome as Joshua vs Fury in July but whatever, these things are never simple. However it means that nobody else is getting a title shot until several months into 2021 at the earliest (unless the WBO vacate their belt which could mean Oleksandr Usyk vs Joseph Parker for the title but pretty sure a unification bout would take precedence there even in the weird world of boxing).
At least that means there’s plenty of time for the rest of the heavyweight division to sort itself out into some semblance of hierarchy. The pretenders and the contenders will have to fight each other with the cream rising to the top. Dereck Chisora and Oleksandr Usyk are gonna step it out. Agit Kabayel vs Mariusz Wach is booked for the end of this month, Adam Kownacki vs Robert Helenius this weekend. The best case scenario for Parker would be to get another crack at Dillian Whyte and to beat the bugger and discredit one of those two Ls on his record but there’s a lot less on the line there for Whyte to agree to considering he thinks he’s next in line for a title shot (again, Dillian mate, that won’t happen for at least a year).
The plan is to get back into the ring as soon as May though. Parker ain’t pissing around when he’s got a reputation to restore and he’ll probably fight again before the end of the year. Three fights in 2020. And he’s calling out anybody in the top ten – Dereck Chisora was the first name he mentioned because of the unfinished business there. Dillian Whyte, Andy Ruiz Jr, Alexander Povetkin, and Oleksandr Usyk have all been name dropped too. Any of those would be worthwhile just to get him back in amongst the in-crowd.
Speaking of which...
How about that, aye? Stitch Duran in the corner for Joseph Parker! Stitch Duran is one of the absolute best cutmen in the business, having cleaned up the likes of Tyson Fury and the Klitchscko Bros as well as working with several top UFC fighters too and if you really wanna know the prowess of the man... he’s been in three separate Rocky movies playing himself. The Parker camp has always been a humble crew in their own way, Parker sticking with the blokes that came up with him, so this element of elite class is a nice balance. Joe probably got himself cut on purpose just to give Stitchy something to do. Also gotta shout out John Parker: Assist/Brother. A title anybody would aspire to. By the way, if the cheques don’t bounce and they can keep Stitch around then obviously Kevin Barry’s new name has to be Lilo. Sorry ‘bout it but it’s the only way.
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