Joseph Parker

[cranky]

Hey Diehard. Congrats on having a thread reach 1000 posts and 100 pages!

[Kiwi]

Hey - long time no see, guys.

I left when Tua retired, but saw Joseph fight Meehan and was very impressed - so thought I would comment on this thread.

-Kiwi

[Kiwi]

I really can't see what you guys are complaining about.

Parker has just 16 pro fights - and you moan when he is still fighting low-ranked guys?

Most fighters at his stage are still fighting absolute tomato cans. He has done a lot more.

Once he gets to around 20 pro fights I would expect he will be fighting only Top-30 guys.

It is not quite time yet. Duco are doing the right thing.

-Kiwi

[cranky]

Hey Kiwi- welcome back

[cranky]

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.

[NakiFan]

Thanks cranky.

Bring on 2016 I say.

[Kiwi]

I might not pay $$$ to watch that fight
but I certainly would find a bar somewhere that is showing it.

For a mere 16-fight pro like Parker, it sounds like a good step to take.

-Kiwi

[shamrock]

Well Cranky I hope he's right but what I've seen of Martz he mightnt give Jo more than two rounds. It doesn't convince me to buy ppv.

[shamrock]

And congrats also to die on a damn good well constructed and managed boxing website. The 1st in Nz

[faimoko]

I'M waiting for stormy to come back that's all I want lol..
I know sham has money issues and his sky connection is interment lol