Where It Was Won

Two things were clear as Aotearoa’s most significant ever clash of heavyweight boxers took place last weekend. One was that Junior Fa was being seriously underrated by a lot of people. The other was that the respective strengths of the two fighters was always going to make a knockout victory for either dude extremely unlikely. Parker’s KO power of the early days of his career has not travelled up the rankings with him. Coming off three straight knockouts entering the ring at Spark Arena? Sure, but he didn’t knock out Carlos Takam. He didn’t knock out Andy Ruiz. He didn’t knock out Razvan Cojanu. He didn’t knock out Hughie Fury... and ultimately he didn’t knock out Junior Fa either.

But what he did do was he boxed a clever fight and wrapped up what was probably a safe enough victory on the cards. Not as safe as at least one of the judges seemed to think it had been, dunno why there’s always that one wonky judge with beer goggles on no matter what combat sport you happen to be watching. But Parker deserved the unanimous decision. He came out quickly – one of the keys to the fight as mentioned by both camps in the lead-up – and racked up a rapid lead to ensure he was boxing from in front and controlling the bout. If Anthony Joshua couldn’t (/didn’t try to) knock Parker out, if Dillian Whyte couldn’t knock Parker out... then all due respect to Junior Fa, and there’s plenty of that coming his way, but Junior Fa wasn’t going to knock Parker out.

Yet Junior Fa put up an extremely good account of himself. He showed exactly why he’s a ranked heavyweight with a clever plan and some more than useful execution to largely frustrate Parker and keep him from doing any genuine damage. Fa did get cut above the eye and that was an ongoing concern though replays showed the cut was due to an elbow that caught him. It did give Parker something to target... but if anything it was Fa who landed the heavier blows. Particularly once he really got his feet underneath himself from about the fifth round onwards.

More heavy punches is one thing though... but if those punches don’t cause trouble – which they didn’t, neither fighter really inflicted any lasting pain – then that’s not enough. You need to be tallying up the points in a fight that’s destined to go to the scorecards and in that aspect it was Parker all the way. In the words of Junior Fa, he thought that he himself was the “better boxer” on the night but that Joseph Parker “played the game better”. Which Eugene Bareman went on to clarify further...

Eugene Bareman: “The big nice clean shots, they were very even. I probably had Junior up on those. But it was the work in between. It was the work that Joseph did in between that isn't necessarily effective in terms of hurting Junior but what it is effective in doing is separating the two. If you have an equal amount of clean shots landing then it’s all the fuddy-duddy work in between. If the judges have to differentiate the fighters, that's what they look for and Joseph used his experience quite a bit better.”

The CompuBox numbers tell a slightly different tale as far as the power punches go. Bit surprising to see that difference in volume to be honest but you can see pretty blatantly that Parker threw a lot more overall and especially when it came to those body shots he really tallied them up. Fa’s mobility and his boxing nous were enough to mitigate what power Parker had to offer, and it certainly made things tough for Parker, but it was Joe who all the while kept leaping in with those lead jabs and fighting on the front foot.

Simple as that. Parker did what he needed to do to get the win in the judges’ eyes... and it’s credit to Junior Fa and his crew that nobody disputed that. There wasn’t any moaning and there weren’t any attempts to discredit the decision. Just acceptance of a performance that was good but not good enough, honest about what needs to be improved upon yet drawing confidence from the experience.

Parker’s reaction was similarly realistic with regards to aspects where he let the bout get away from him (although he wasn’t specific about what those aspects were – just kept referring to the fight not reflecting the levels of his preparation). That made it a little weird, to be honest, with the winning team kinda sombre and the losing team pretty chipper. But that’s boxing for ya.

The Tactical Battle

That’s how the fight was won, but we gotta talk about why it was won that way too. Leading into this fight, Fa’s team were happy to accept the underdog tag (no choice, really) but they always reiterated that they had a plan. What that plan was specifically, well nobody was gonna drop state secrets to the media ahead of time... but you could see as the fight began that Fa was happy to be selective. He kept himself on the outside for the most part, moving his feet nicely, and trying to set the distance with his long jab (remember he has a significant reach advantage over Parker). Then when things got close, it was straight into the clinch. Whether it to trap Parker as he leaned into his jabs or to protect himself on the back end of his own little combos. That was he wasn’t trading counter punches in close where Parker’s speed could really trouble him. Mike Angove in commentary called it the Klitschko approach.

But yeah, as already established, Fa just didn’t do enough within that strategy. At times you’d hear Fa’s corner yelling “touch him, just touch him” as the fighters stalked each other around but by Fa’s own admission it was Parker who was smarter in those in-between moments, working those body shots and using his quick feet and even quicker hands to keep on tagging away. The first round was probably a Fa round but Parker didn’t take long to figure things out and boxing with a lovely tempo he pushed out to an early lead by winning the next three rounds.

Problem for Parker was that, while he’d steadied the ship, he was never able to increase his rate of knots. Fa came back into it in the fifth not so much because he landed many hits but because he got a little smarter defensively. On the broadcast you could hear (presumably) Israel Adesanya cheering on with calls of “sweet science” “shake and bake” and “there you go”. Meanwhile Parker’s corner was stressing that he needed to stay patient.

Boosted by that solid round, Fa then came out swinging in the sixth although that was also the round in which he copped that cut to the eye (which thankfully wasn’t in an area where it affected his vision, though it did get rather messy). And despite Fa walking back to the corner with his arms up in celebration there was a strong case to say Parker still won that round as he really unleashed the body shots on a couple occasions. Inexperience there on show from Fa – didn’t quite see out what was otherwise a really strong round.

Funny thing is, both fighters claimed afterwards that they’d hurt the other but denied being hurt themselves. Somebody was lying, folks – there were a few rockers on both sides but neither looked like they were ever in danger of being dropped. However there was some more of that sloppiness/inexperience from Fa in those middle rounds. A few times he didn’t get Parker tied up in the clinch properly or he held on too long and took some damage as Joe wriggled free, meanwhile Parker still wasn’t really able to step into his punches directly but you did see the left hook swinging a bit more in the back-half.

Parker made a repeated point in his presser about how well Junior Fa moved around. Like, three of four times he used that word ‘movement’. His intention was to be able to get in and out with his jab, maybe free up that right hand over the top. But Fa was closing him down whenever he could and limiting those opportunities... hence the frustration. The class of the man meant he still boxed his way to victory but that was all he did. A routine but unflattering win. Junior Fa came on strong in the last four or five rounds but Parker had already established a big lead through the middle so it wasn’t enough to make up the gap. It looked like a 115-113 fight on live viewing and it still looked like a 115-113 fight on replay.

(Definitely not a blowout like one of the judges called it... this is Fa’s American promoter’s reckons...)

What’s Up Next

No guesses as to what Joseph Parker is planning on next. Dereck Chisora has already been on the phone - or he would have if he understood time differences...

David Higgins seems to think there’s no chance of that bout being in Aotearoa. Chisora won’t take it if it’s not on home soil, so he claims. Eddie Hearn is supposedly open to fights down under if the financials work out but that isn’t going to be one of them. No worries. Seems like a quality match-up, with two motivated fighters who’ve got a little bit of history. Let’s get it done.

Chat of a Chisora-Parker scrap has been lingering for weeks now, since way before fight night, and it could even happen as early as May/June. Parker said afterwards that he doesn’t wanna have another year out of the ring like he just did – making the point that when he was fighting 3-4 times per year earlier in his career was when he was fighting with his best rhythm. Some of that chat is kinda convenient given that was his rise to prominence so of course he remembers it fondly... but it’s still a fair point to make and a strategy worth adopting. It’s not like he (or Fa) was badly hurt here. No reason to avoid a quick turnaround.

There had been this narrative leading into this bout, including from his own camp, that Parker to win with a showcase performance. Something that’d get people talking. Safe to say that did not happen, otherwise Joe Parker and Kevin Barry wouldn’t both be talking about this as a C+ performance (Higgins on the other had rated it as a ‘W’, lol), reiterating that line about how things were so good in training but for whatever reason he wasn’t able to translate that into the ring.

Which makes you wonder... after watching another example of Parker winning without looking spectacular, of Parker going up against a ranked opponent and not putting out his best display, on a night where Junior Fa’s tactical approach seemed to get so much right... is it perhaps time for a change in trainer for JP? How would he have fared against Dillian Whyte with a CKB gameplan? Parker is an incredibly skilled fighter but he still makes some annoying mistakes. He doesn’t seem to have the variety to change his angles up when Plan A isn’t working. This thing of Parker not hitting his potential in the ring has happened once too often and Kevin Barry has to cop some blame for that.

UPDATE: Told ya so…

And yet Parker’s already got his next fight basically all sorted so whatever the yarns were about needing that spectacle performance... they were nothing but yarns. Entirely irrelevant. Most of the UK didn’t even know who Junior Fa was. All Parker had to do was win and he was sweet, mission accomplished.

As to Junior Fa’s prospects... you’d really hope he’s put his name into the hat with that effort. He deserves as much – just gotta hope that enough people were paying attention. Fa’s situation is quite different to Parker’s as he’s represented by Lou DiBella, an American promoter. No doubt DiBella will have a few ideas on where to go next and most likely that’ll mean fighting in the USA again. But a very commendable showing against Joseph Parker does suddenly open up the possibility of getting in on the English scene as well.

One thing that we shouldn’t expect is a rematch any time soon. Fa reckons Parker’s camp will duck him. He might well be right too although you earn the right to duck a guy when you’ve already beaten them. Nothing else to really gain until Fa cycles through a few more top tier dudes first. It’s definitely one you can always file away in the future as it wouldn’t be the hardest to organise... but only Joseph Parker had a rematch clause in his contract so we’re talking several years down the line if it’s to happen again.

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