11-12-2015, 12:27 PM
Post from "Crunch" from checkhookboxing (Parkers matchmaker Stu Duncan):
Guys while i am not going to waste my time getting into a debate with individuals about our selection of opponents ... take the following into consideration;
Parker will be the 7th undefeated opponent Martz has faced in his 17 fight career to date
Martz is the youngest and biggest opponent Parker has faced - standing 6'7 1/2 tall and enters the ring at an average of 250lbs.
With the top 15 littered with talls - Martz being 6'7 1/2 put him in favorable consideration
Joe wanted to fight in his nation of birth & we decided to squeeze it in on Jan 23rd. There is only 67 southpaws in the heavyweight division with most rated outside BoxRecs top 150. Considering Joe has never fought a lefty - we wanted jeramiah karpency who is 12-0 however Jeramiah suffered a neck injury and wasnt going to be available for this date. Bergman's record is deceiving in that despite his multiple losses - he has only lost twice in his last 18 outings. This fight is in Samoa - theres not a big gate - nor does the event attract sponsorship that usually comes with these events - so the budget is lower. Do we want Ortiz - Charles or even the tricky Tony Thompson for his first southpaw? the answer is no - plain and simple .. we will see how Joe handles Bergman and look at one of those guys or other during the course of 2016. (being mindful that the Samoan promotion couldn't support the purse of a top 15 rated type of southpaw)
In finishing on this subject - I have an active database comprising the BoxRec top 160 heavyweights which i work from. i will give you some rough stats from this data base. 9 of them are in contention & wouldnt consider travelling to fight Joe while they are awaiting their shot at the title or an eliminator. 60 of the top 160 we consider would be mismatches and havent approached them. We have however offered over 15 of the top 15 rated boxers from across the 4 main sanctioning bodies a shot at Joe - all with good money attached to them. Further to this we have offered a fight to 58 others within the top 160 .. do your math and you will see the picking are reduced to a small quantity. There are 3 or 4 who are on the radar for 2016 as Joes team feel he will be ready for them - extremely tough challenges. While I refuse to go into the name & shame game as i feel that is classless - we have made efforts to secure Duhaupass (pre Wilder) and Wach (pre Povetkin) and others like Arnold Gjerjaj and many other quality opponents to no avail.
So when you take everything into consideration - Martz in my opinion is every bit as good as Saglam - Pettaway - Beato Costa Jr but younger bigger and stronger. He is a willing participant and didnt need to be asked twice - as i say Joe will be the 7th undefeated opponent he has faced and when you consider Floyd faced 3 in his 49 fight career - he's a game character who make no mistakes is coming to fight and for mine will put up a stiffer test than anyone Joe has fought in 2015. I hope this goes someway to explaining our selection process which is a difficult job at best.
Guys while i am not going to waste my time getting into a debate with individuals about our selection of opponents ... take the following into consideration;
Parker will be the 7th undefeated opponent Martz has faced in his 17 fight career to date
Martz is the youngest and biggest opponent Parker has faced - standing 6'7 1/2 tall and enters the ring at an average of 250lbs.
With the top 15 littered with talls - Martz being 6'7 1/2 put him in favorable consideration
Joe wanted to fight in his nation of birth & we decided to squeeze it in on Jan 23rd. There is only 67 southpaws in the heavyweight division with most rated outside BoxRecs top 150. Considering Joe has never fought a lefty - we wanted jeramiah karpency who is 12-0 however Jeramiah suffered a neck injury and wasnt going to be available for this date. Bergman's record is deceiving in that despite his multiple losses - he has only lost twice in his last 18 outings. This fight is in Samoa - theres not a big gate - nor does the event attract sponsorship that usually comes with these events - so the budget is lower. Do we want Ortiz - Charles or even the tricky Tony Thompson for his first southpaw? the answer is no - plain and simple .. we will see how Joe handles Bergman and look at one of those guys or other during the course of 2016. (being mindful that the Samoan promotion couldn't support the purse of a top 15 rated type of southpaw)
In finishing on this subject - I have an active database comprising the BoxRec top 160 heavyweights which i work from. i will give you some rough stats from this data base. 9 of them are in contention & wouldnt consider travelling to fight Joe while they are awaiting their shot at the title or an eliminator. 60 of the top 160 we consider would be mismatches and havent approached them. We have however offered over 15 of the top 15 rated boxers from across the 4 main sanctioning bodies a shot at Joe - all with good money attached to them. Further to this we have offered a fight to 58 others within the top 160 .. do your math and you will see the picking are reduced to a small quantity. There are 3 or 4 who are on the radar for 2016 as Joes team feel he will be ready for them - extremely tough challenges. While I refuse to go into the name & shame game as i feel that is classless - we have made efforts to secure Duhaupass (pre Wilder) and Wach (pre Povetkin) and others like Arnold Gjerjaj and many other quality opponents to no avail.
So when you take everything into consideration - Martz in my opinion is every bit as good as Saglam - Pettaway - Beato Costa Jr but younger bigger and stronger. He is a willing participant and didnt need to be asked twice - as i say Joe will be the 7th undefeated opponent he has faced and when you consider Floyd faced 3 in his 49 fight career - he's a game character who make no mistakes is coming to fight and for mine will put up a stiffer test than anyone Joe has fought in 2015. I hope this goes someway to explaining our selection process which is a difficult job at best.