Joseph Parker vs Carlos Takam: Rising to the Challenge & Rising to be Challenger
This time there was no highlight reel knockout. There wasn’t even a knockdown unless you count a couple of times when the fighters slipped on the canvas. But after 12 long rounds, Joseph Parker ultimately came out on top with a unanimous decision, defeating Carlos Takam to edge himself into position as the next IBF mandatory challenger.
It was a pretty incredible atmosphere down in the Vodafone Events Centre, Parker getting his biggest home support in his biggest fight yet. Unfortunately all those people and the many, many more watching on screens around New Zealand and the world did have to sit through a mostly pathetic undercard that probably peaked when Jordan Tai prematurely celebrated a knockdown of Joe Blackbourn by hurdling the ropes, only to trip and tumble and swing back down through them. Worst thing was Blackbourn got back up and the fight continued (although not for much longer as Tai defended his NZ Super Middleweight title).
But once the home town lad strolled out it was suddenly all business as the weight of the occasion dawned. Carlos Takam is hardly a household name but he’s a proven fighter with an enviable record. A legitimate contender, just as Parker wished to become. Despite the occasional farcical nature of some of Parker’s earlier fights, where it sometimes felt like he was deliberately holding back just to practice the odd technical thing and not waste the ring time with a first rounder, this was a proper fight. The first time in Parker’s career where the shackles had been truly removed. Takam was not a drawcard in and of himself (at least not in Aotearoa) but the importance of the fight was there to see in stakes on the line and the importance of those stakes was clear in how Takam was willing to come all the way to the other side of the world for this opportunity.
There’s a very real factor with Parker that we don’t quite know what we’ve got with him. In the boxing world, the step up to title contention can creep up on you, as has happened with Parker. With the announcement of this fight he went from a crawl to a sprint, suddenly a potential two fights away from a heavyweight belt - despite never having been tested in the ring. It is his power that gets the folks excited but the first couple of rounds against Takam were very even. Both fighters a little reticent, not a lot of hard punches thrown. Parker was impatient at times and tried to force the matter but Takam countered well to keep him at range.
It was all rather tactical. Punches didn’t seem to carry the force you’d have figured they would, either that or the two fighters simply absorbed them without flinching. The third and fourth rounds were much more to Parker’s liking though. He wasn’t hurting Takam but he was hitting him. Outworking him. There were a few rare moments that got the corporates up cheering but while Parker’s double left jab was now controlling the distance between the fighters, there was no opportunity for the crushing right to come through. Credit Takam for his defensive solidity but also credit Parker for not being too eager. He understood that he had the fight in control now.
Takam had to be more aggressive or he’d be staring down a tame points-decision. Late in the fourth he did. He got Parker onto the ropes and he used that reach advantage to keep him there, putting on some pressure with the kiwi more immobile. It wasn’t enough to win the round but in the fifth he returned to that strategy and lay down some serious damage. Again, Parker didn’t really get hit. Whether or not he could take a heavy one to the chin or not was a worry coming in but he withstood his strongest challenge yet in the fifth. Takam was unable to rock him. But Takam did comfortably take the round, the most decisive one yet. Parker looked really gassed. The bell could not come quick enough.
And yet Takam didn’t come back out for the kill. If anything, he settled back into the grind and allowed Parker to work around for a couple of rounds and recover himself. His second wind came in the eighth and it came hard. Parker landed a couple of shots and drew upon the energy of what had been a nervous crowd but was now a thirsty one, a few combos came flying and for once the counters didn’t thump in reply. You could almost see a switch flicked behind Parker’s eyes as he surged into a flurry of punches, seeing his opportunity to strike and doing all he could to take it. It was impressive stuff but Takam survived and even by the end of that round was back in his rhythm.
Having seen his window close, Parker still didn’t need to panic. He was on top of this fight and he didn’t need to go crazy for the knockout. So he didn’t. Takam looked better in the ninth but crucially Parker kept up enough energy to get the better of the tenth and eleventh. If you weren’t convinced that Parker was well in the lead by then, you could tell by the way Takam tried to force it in the twelfth. Whenever a fighter goes all out for the KO in the last round, you know their team has told them that’s their only chance. Takam did some fine things there but Parker let him have it to avoid the killer blow and when the final bell tolled, it tolled for the kid from South Auckland.
The refs judged it 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113. There were no knockdowns or penalties so that’s either eight rounds to four or seven rounds to five and both were relatively comfortable (considering Takam won the final round).
With that Parker becomes the IBF mandatory challenger, meaning that Anthony Joshua-Joseph Parker fight is right there on the horizon. However it ain’t that simple. The challenge won’t be ordered until at least November, possibly not even until early 2017, and Joshua already has his first defence of that belt against Dominic Breazeale in late-June. Breazeale is an American up and comer with a 17-0 record, 15 wins by knockout. He dealt Amir Mansour a first pro loss in January in his biggest fight yet but you can definitely say a title shot is coming prematurely for Breazeale. But then so was the case for Joshua. He was supposed to make the big step up when he met Charles Martin for the IBF belt only to crush him with a second round KO – meaning Joshua, for all his promise, still doesn’t really have a challenging win to his name. The win over Dillian Whyte was a bruising one before that but when every one of your professional victories has come by knockout, nobody knows what’ll happen if that power someday doesn’t make the difference.
Joseph Parker just out-boxed a very strong opponent. With that you could argue his resume now holds the best win out of he and Joshua. Of course, that doesn’t mean anything should they meet in the ring tomorrow. Joshua is the more refined fighter and while Parker showed plenty of positives in getting the win over Carlos Takam (most of all the fact that he now belongs in this top tier of heavyweight prospects), there were worries that emerged from this one too. Probably top of the list was that his power didn’t seem to be what we thought it would be. He hit hard, but he didn’t hit like David Tua used to hit hard. Defensively he was pretty good, although whether he’s able to keep that up against a more aggressive opponent is another matter. And while he didn’t seem to take too much pain, his conditioning clearly could have been better – and it will be, this was unchartered territory for him going the distance against a guy that could actually hurt him. However he looked quick, really quick. Funny that after all the talk about his knockout power it might actually be his hand speed that's his best weapon. It’ll be a while before he gets to enact that mandatory challenger tag but on the basis of this bout, that probably isn’t a bad thing.
Reports are that Parker’s next fight will be against Australia’s Solomon Haumono in Christchurch in July. That’d be a significant step down, although a settler of a fight seems like a decent idea. Plus this would increase his profile over on the other side of the Tasman Sea which is always nice for the bank balance. Parker already has a name in Britain thanks to his mirrored rise with Anthony Joshua, so a reputation in Oz is another market to mine. Also, DUCO would still control a fight like that, which should be said. They wouldn’t have to cede any marketing/promotion to some bigger dog.
Haumono is a decent enough battler with a 24-2-2 record, though possibly better known for his 111 game NRL career, which ended in 2004. The 40 year old shares an opponent in common with Parker in Marcelo Luiz Nascimento, who each of them stopped by TKO a couple years back. Nascimento has also battled (and lost to) Carlos Takam, Dereck Chisora and Dillian Whyte. Haumono didn’t fight in 2014 but twice took the ring in 2015 and beat Manuel Alberto Pucheta (a nobody) by KO in April. His last defeat was in 2013 to Kevin Johnson, who decked him, a fighter that most recently was beaten up by Anthony Joshua (May 2015) and with two title fights in his history (unanimous decision losses to Chisora and Vitali Klitschko).
Parker will drop Haumono, he’s a class above. But the fight will be a massive Aussie vs NZ scrap and that’s a promoter’s dream, especially since they can keep it in New Zealand. It’s definitely a little underwhelming should it come to pass, and a few months ago it’d probably be met with more complaints about DUCO’s fingerprints and weak battlers but maybe not now. Not after Joseph Parker stepped up to the challenge of Carlos Takam and came through it with a W. Had he knocked him out or won a bit more convincingly then for sure you take the next step up but with a few things still to work on you don’t risk an entire career by rushing it. Only last week Haumono was reportedly offered a spot on the Fury-Klitschko II undercard fighting Tyson’s younger brother Hughie. He also had negotiations going on with David Haye who is working his way back into heavyweight relevance after injuries cost him two years of his career by dropping jokers in over-hyped sparring sessions. He’s already announced his next move by plucking 44-year old Shannon Briggs out of his undercard. Except that Haumono has called out Parker before. This was the one he wanted and Parker will do well to stay active between now and the end of the year. Decent enough fight.
Chances are Parker will fight twice between now and the title shot. Whether this happens or not is another matter but it’d be seriously fun to see Parker get Dillian Whyte in that second bout. Whyte commentated for Sky Sports UK on the Parker-Takam fight and was notably unimpressed:
Dillian Whyte: "I think his power is overrated. I think he's fought a lot of sandbags. Sorry, but that's my opinion. Tonight he fought someone with a bit of experience and intelligence and he couldn't stop him. I see things in Parker's game that mean I could knock him out. I love a left hook and a left hand.”
But all that means, his calling him out like that, is that Whyte wants him in the ring. That’s the way that guys to business these days. Whyte also offered a lot of praise for Parker but made the pertinent point that Takam let himself down with his approach – and Whyte backed himself to see that through in the same shoes. Whyte, after all, is the only person so far to have trouble Anthony Joshua, although he was eventually knocked out in reply.
Hey, whatever happens the fact is now that Joseph Parker is truly on the radar. These are all exciting times from here.