Joseph Parker rises to No 3 in BoxRec world rankings ahead of Tyson Fury
Stuff sports reporters
Joseph Parker celebrates victory following the WBC International & WBO intercontinental heavyweight fight against Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia.
Kiwi boxer Joseph Parker has risen to No 3 in the world heayvweight rankings listed by BoxRec, the respected global boxing records website.
Parker has been rewarded for his stunning unanimous points decision win over Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia last Sunday (NZ time).
He sits behind No 1 Oleksandr Usyk from Ukraine, and England’s Anthony Joshua.
“Joe is now ranked a position ahead of Tyson Fury. Very elite company,’’ Parker’s former trainer Kevin Barry said on NewsTalk ZB on Saturday.
Fury – the WBC belt holder since 2020 and a former unified heavyweight world champion – and Parker train together at Fury’s gym in Morecambe in Lancashire.
Barry praised Parker’s “totally clinical performance’’ against Wilder, the “biggest-punching heavyweight of the last decade’’, saying it was a one-sided “career-defining fight” that “shocked the world’’.
Las Vegas-based Barry said of Wilder’s tepid performance, “Father Time is still undefeated’’. At 38, after “a trilogy’’ of tough fights against Fury, Wilder “simply could not pull the trigger’’ against Parker.
“Deontay Wilder grew old last Saturday against Joseph Parker. Honestly, I think Joseph Parker has retired Deontay Wilder."
Barry felt Parker had prospered from staying active in 2023 with the Wilder contest his fourth fight of the year”.
His former charge now had plenty of options.
“There’s a saying in boxing that you are only as good as your last fight. Well, Joe’s last fight was a very, very good one.”
Barry said Parker was ranked No 4 challenger for the IBF title held by Usyk, but Otto Waldin, “who got knocked out by Anthony Joshua’’, was at No 2, “so Joe’s going to move from four to three.
“There’s some talk around that Filip Hrgovic is going to fight Anthony Joshua in March, possibly after Fury and Usyk fight in February.
“There’s talk that the IBF belt may be vacant, and with Hrgovic the mandatory challenger, he and Anthony Joshua could be fighting for the IBF belt, which could put Joseph in a very high position in the IBF.’’
Barry said Parker also sat “in a very high position with WB0’’, where he was currently ranked no 3 behind Joshua and Jared Anderson, with “the big Chinaman’’, Zhilei Zhang, as the interim champion.
Before his win in Riyadh, Parker was at No 8 in the WBC rankings, Barry said, but “Wilder was No 1, so he’s out of there’’, and Arslanbek Makhmudov at No 3, “also got stopped’’ in Saudi Arabia by Germany’s Agit Kabayel.
”So there’s going to be some movement for Joe in the WBC as well.”
Barry said over the next couple of weeks it would be “very interesting to see where the likes of the WBC move Joseph Parker in the rankings”.
Wilder slipped to 17th in the BoxRec rankings after his loss to Parker.
BoxRec’s latest world heavyweight rankings
1: Oleksandr Usyk (Ukraine), 2: Anthony Joshua (England), 3: Joseph Parker (New Zealand), 4: Tyson Fury (England), 5: Daniel Dubois (England), 6: Agit Kabayel (Gerymany), 7: Zhilei Zhang (China), 8: Joe Joyce (England), 9: Filip Hrgovic (Croatia), 10: Derek Chisora (England).
Stuff sports reporters
Joseph Parker celebrates victory following the WBC International & WBO intercontinental heavyweight fight against Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia.
Kiwi boxer Joseph Parker has risen to No 3 in the world heayvweight rankings listed by BoxRec, the respected global boxing records website.
Parker has been rewarded for his stunning unanimous points decision win over Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia last Sunday (NZ time).
He sits behind No 1 Oleksandr Usyk from Ukraine, and England’s Anthony Joshua.
“Joe is now ranked a position ahead of Tyson Fury. Very elite company,’’ Parker’s former trainer Kevin Barry said on NewsTalk ZB on Saturday.
Fury – the WBC belt holder since 2020 and a former unified heavyweight world champion – and Parker train together at Fury’s gym in Morecambe in Lancashire.
Barry praised Parker’s “totally clinical performance’’ against Wilder, the “biggest-punching heavyweight of the last decade’’, saying it was a one-sided “career-defining fight” that “shocked the world’’.
Las Vegas-based Barry said of Wilder’s tepid performance, “Father Time is still undefeated’’. At 38, after “a trilogy’’ of tough fights against Fury, Wilder “simply could not pull the trigger’’ against Parker.
“Deontay Wilder grew old last Saturday against Joseph Parker. Honestly, I think Joseph Parker has retired Deontay Wilder."
Barry felt Parker had prospered from staying active in 2023 with the Wilder contest his fourth fight of the year”.
His former charge now had plenty of options.
“There’s a saying in boxing that you are only as good as your last fight. Well, Joe’s last fight was a very, very good one.”
Barry said Parker was ranked No 4 challenger for the IBF title held by Usyk, but Otto Waldin, “who got knocked out by Anthony Joshua’’, was at No 2, “so Joe’s going to move from four to three.
“There’s some talk around that Filip Hrgovic is going to fight Anthony Joshua in March, possibly after Fury and Usyk fight in February.
“There’s talk that the IBF belt may be vacant, and with Hrgovic the mandatory challenger, he and Anthony Joshua could be fighting for the IBF belt, which could put Joseph in a very high position in the IBF.’’
Barry said Parker also sat “in a very high position with WB0’’, where he was currently ranked no 3 behind Joshua and Jared Anderson, with “the big Chinaman’’, Zhilei Zhang, as the interim champion.
Before his win in Riyadh, Parker was at No 8 in the WBC rankings, Barry said, but “Wilder was No 1, so he’s out of there’’, and Arslanbek Makhmudov at No 3, “also got stopped’’ in Saudi Arabia by Germany’s Agit Kabayel.
”So there’s going to be some movement for Joe in the WBC as well.”
Barry said over the next couple of weeks it would be “very interesting to see where the likes of the WBC move Joseph Parker in the rankings”.
Wilder slipped to 17th in the BoxRec rankings after his loss to Parker.
BoxRec’s latest world heavyweight rankings
1: Oleksandr Usyk (Ukraine), 2: Anthony Joshua (England), 3: Joseph Parker (New Zealand), 4: Tyson Fury (England), 5: Daniel Dubois (England), 6: Agit Kabayel (Gerymany), 7: Zhilei Zhang (China), 8: Joe Joyce (England), 9: Filip Hrgovic (Croatia), 10: Derek Chisora (England).