07-30-2016, 02:54 AM
(07-30-2016, 12:05 AM)Msreef Wrote:(07-29-2016, 09:58 PM)tm7 Wrote: Random but surprised Joe's had 20 fights now and never faced another undefeated fighter and almost nobody younger than 30. Would love to have seen him face another young hungry fighter with an 0 to lose. AJ coming but until now I mean
I actually disagree with this to some degree. Yes AJ has faced four undefeated fighters, but they were all unproven fighters. We don't actually know how good Whyte is, because he hasn't beaten anyone at a proven level. Charles Martin only had one half decent win and that fight ended very early because the guy had an injury. Gary Cornish is trash, and Brezeale isn't much better. Parker could beat 20 undefeated fighters in a row, but if they are trash and simply have padded records, does it mean anything?
I would much rather Parker fight proven fighters at a certain level (i.e. top 20), then take on a solid prospect like AJ. Takam was a great fight. We saw the areas he needs to work on, and he got in 12 rounds with a tough opponent. Because of that Takam win, Parker becomes top 10 (just). It really is difficult to know where to place Joshua, he looks great to the eye, but he is so untested for a heavyweight 'champ' it's not funny.
Martin, Brezeale and Whyte all had records going into the Joshua fight that werent too dissimilar to Parkers before he fought Takam. I couldn't honestly say that before Parker fought Takam that he had a better class of opponent on his resume than Whyte, Martin and Brezeale. So we know they were of a certain level. Actually Whyte and Parker have 3 common opponents and Whyte finished them all before Parker. Takam was a good fight, a good opponent. But even he is 35. All the others before that have been 100 years old or garbage or both. I'm surprised, like tm, that Parker's team have not put him in with at least one undefeated young fighter and that he's not fought on a big undercard in US or UK. Just to add, from my point, the Takam fight exposed Parker quite alot. In an attacking sense, Parker has some great assets and good skills but defensively I couldn't see a difference between him, Whyte, Brezeale or Martin. The amount of times Parker leaned straight back against the ropes with his hands down was shocking.