12-27-2018, 06:20 PM
oseph Parker holds firm in heavyweight rankings as Junior Fa steps up again
DUNCAN JOHNSTONE
He may have lost his WBO title but top Kiwi boxer Joseph Parker has done enough to stay in the heavyweight conversation.
Joseph Parker will finish a difficult year ranked No 5 with the WBC while fellow Kiwi heavyweight Junior Fa continues his rise with the WBO.
Parker's knockout win over unheralded Mexican-American Alexander Flores in Christchurch earlier in December maintained his position in the top five and kept him in the conversation among the elite fighters in the glamour division.
All the four major associations have updated their rankings for the last time in 2018.
Junior Fa's latest win has lifted him to No 9 with the WBO.
Parker started the year as the WBO champion but lost that belt in a unification fight with Anthony Joshua.
That points loss and his subsequent points defeat at the hands of Dillian Whyte saw him fall out of the rankings with everyone except the WBC who have maintained their faith in him.
Fa is the Kiwi courting the WBO now and continues to make progress.
He has moved up one place to No 9 on the back of his knockout win over Argentina's Rogelio Omar Rossi on the Parker undercard.
Joshua holds the WBA, WBO and IBF belts and Deontay Wilder the WBC version.
Tyson Fury was the big mover in the latest rankings, lifting to No 2 with the WBC on the back of his incredible draw with Wilder in Los Angeles in early December.
Whyte is No 1 with the WBC and WBO and desperate for a title shot, eager to line out against Joshua at Wembley in April if Joshua can't arrange a unification bout with Wilder.
Parker has Whyte, Fury, Cuban Luis Ortiz and American Dominic Breazeale in front of him at the WBC.
The independent rankings are always a good guide to the true value of fighters and the highly respected Ring magazine has Parker at No 7 behind Joshua, Fury, Wilder, Whyte, Ortiz and Russian Alexander Povetkin.
BoxRec, which keep tabs on 1261 active heavyweights, has Parker at No 10 with American Jarrell Miller and Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev ahead of him in an increasingly competitive division.
Fa is ranked No 57 by BoxRec.
DUNCAN JOHNSTONE
He may have lost his WBO title but top Kiwi boxer Joseph Parker has done enough to stay in the heavyweight conversation.
Joseph Parker will finish a difficult year ranked No 5 with the WBC while fellow Kiwi heavyweight Junior Fa continues his rise with the WBO.
Parker's knockout win over unheralded Mexican-American Alexander Flores in Christchurch earlier in December maintained his position in the top five and kept him in the conversation among the elite fighters in the glamour division.
All the four major associations have updated their rankings for the last time in 2018.
Junior Fa's latest win has lifted him to No 9 with the WBO.
Parker started the year as the WBO champion but lost that belt in a unification fight with Anthony Joshua.
That points loss and his subsequent points defeat at the hands of Dillian Whyte saw him fall out of the rankings with everyone except the WBC who have maintained their faith in him.
Fa is the Kiwi courting the WBO now and continues to make progress.
He has moved up one place to No 9 on the back of his knockout win over Argentina's Rogelio Omar Rossi on the Parker undercard.
Joshua holds the WBA, WBO and IBF belts and Deontay Wilder the WBC version.
Tyson Fury was the big mover in the latest rankings, lifting to No 2 with the WBC on the back of his incredible draw with Wilder in Los Angeles in early December.
Whyte is No 1 with the WBC and WBO and desperate for a title shot, eager to line out against Joshua at Wembley in April if Joshua can't arrange a unification bout with Wilder.
Parker has Whyte, Fury, Cuban Luis Ortiz and American Dominic Breazeale in front of him at the WBC.
The independent rankings are always a good guide to the true value of fighters and the highly respected Ring magazine has Parker at No 7 behind Joshua, Fury, Wilder, Whyte, Ortiz and Russian Alexander Povetkin.
BoxRec, which keep tabs on 1261 active heavyweights, has Parker at No 10 with American Jarrell Miller and Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev ahead of him in an increasingly competitive division.
Fa is ranked No 57 by BoxRec.