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Joseph Parker arrives in New Zealand ahead of Fury defence, wonders where Hughie is

James Slater - April 22, 2017 Leave a Comment

A smiling, confident and upbeat Joseph Parker arrived in New Zealand earlier today, two full weeks ahead of his WBO heavyweight title defence against Britain’s Hughie Fury. Aside from telling the media how much he is looking forward to showing his stuff in the ring on May 6, the unbeaten champion spoke of his slight concern over the fact that Fury has not yet arrived in New Zealand.

It seems a little odd to both Parker and his trainer Kevin Barry, that Fury has not arrived well ahead of fight time so as to fully recover from the inevitable jet lag the flight from the UK to New Zealand causes.

“He’s not even here yet and hopefully they do come,” Parker said, courtesy of The New Zealand Herald. “The fight is scheduled to happen May 6 and I hope they do come down so they can see what it’s all about, see what New Zealand’s about but also see what my fists can do in the ring.”

Trainer Kevin Barry said that while there is still “plenty of time for them to arrive,” the offer was there for Fury and his team to arrive six weeks ahead of the fight. Why the delay in Hughie getting to New Zealand? If he doesn’t get there soon, might there be a danger Hughie – having his first fight in New Zealand of course – fails to sufficiently acclimatise?

Interestingly, it was 16 years ago today when British heavyweight great Lennox Lewis came a cropper in South Africa, having arrived late, failed to acclimatise (and adapt to the altitude) and was duly taken out in a big upset by huge underdog Hasim Rahman.

Maybe Fury and his should make sure they don’t make the big mistake Lennox did. Certainly, one would think the knowledgable and savvy Peter Fury, Hughie’s trainer and father, would have all bases covered going into this, the biggest fight of his talented son’s pro career.

We have to assume Fury knows what he’s doing.

https://twitter.com/PacoValcarcel/status/855929314893635585

Fuckn. Fury BS

Fight is off

Team Fury are a damn joke. Never thought this fight would go ahead. I hope there are consequences for the pull out.

Really gutted for Joe and Duco. How much money and time has been wasted. I gave the Furys too much credit.

I wonder who else they can get at such short notice.

Maybe Rudenko or Gerber as a replacement on such short notice? Typical team Fury.

Whoever it is will pretty much have to get on the plane tomorrow.

I wonder if it has anything to do with being drug cheats?

(04-16-2017, 12:38 PM)Msreef Wrote: [ -> ]The Fury's are on holiday... this close to the JP fight. That seems pretty strange to me.
Wouldn't be surprised if Fury gets 'injured', and 'unfortunately' has to pull out.

"Duco's David Higgins said the Fury camp have claimed that Hughie has picked up an injury in training and that they have given Parker the go-ahead to fight another opponent, a state of affairs that his left Higgins "shocked". "Do I think Hughie is injured? No, I don't. I think it's make-believe,"

"We want to do the right thing by the paying public," Higgins said. "We need to show them respect and we will. We as a company need to re-group and make different arrangements and we hope to do that by tomorrow morning."

Article here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11843666

They haven't even been officially cleared of that so more than likely.

Lol

Quote:Asked about the nature of Fury's injury, Higgins said: "I know exactly what it is; their moral compass has broken in half - a nasty fracture of the moral compass. It's not just Hughie, the whole camp has

Joseph Parker fight with Hughie Fury off

Joseph Parker is in Auckland, but Hughie Fury isn't - and their world heavyweight title bout is now in doubt.

Joseph Parker's WBO heavyweight title fight against Hughie Fury is off after the Englishman pulled out claiming injury under two weeks out from the event in Auckland.

Parker was due to fight Fury in a mandatory defence of his WBO world heavyweight title on May 6 but Stuff revealed doubts about the fight last week.

World Boxing Organisation (WBO) president Paco Valcarel said in a tweet on Sunday the fight was now off and "the problem lies within the Fury camp".

As of today, it seems there will be no WBO Heavyweight World Title fight in New Zealand @danrafaelespn @boxingscene

It seems the problem lies within Team Fury @danrafaelespn @boxingscene @fightnews

Parker has been mucked around by the Fury camp throughout the build up. The Kiwi champion has been through an extensive training camp and arrived in New Zealand on Saturday ready to step into the ring next week.

Parker's promoters, Duco Events, fired a shot at the Fury camp for pulling out at such late notice.

"I spoke to the WBO president a minute ago he said the Furys are claiming to have an injury and therefore we can fight whoever we want when we want as a voluntary defence out of the top 50," Duco co-owner David Higgins said.

Asked about the nature of Fury's injury, Higgins said: "I know exactly what it is; their moral compass has broken in half - a nasty fracture of the moral compass. It's not just Hughie, the whole camp has.

"That's boxing. Sometimes this sort of thing goes on. They didn't appear to want to come to New Zealand."

Higgins is yet to speak to anyone from the Fury camp.

"I don't think I'll bother."

A decision is yet to be made about whether Parker will still fight on May 6 but finding an opponent willing to step up on two weeks' notice seems unlikely.

"We've got to regroup and look at what we do. Obviously we have respect for the paying public so we'll keep them informed and provide refunds where appropriate but there will be more information tomorrow [Monday].

"The life of a promoter is not easy but it is interesting."

The development came just a day after Hughie Fury declared his readiness for the fight in a tough-talking first-person column in Britain's Mirror newspaper, headlined "I'm firing on all cylinders, Joseph Parker won't know what's hit him".

"With just two weeks until I take on Joseph Parker, everything has gone well in training. I know every fighter says that, even when it's not true, but I'm raring to go," Fury wrote.

"Because of the problems I had with my skin that I talked about in my first column, this is the first time in a long time that I've had a proper training camp.

"I feel 100 per cent better than I did for my previous fights. I'm bigger, stronger, and more powerful. In fact, I'm a different fighter and Parker won't know what's coming.

"I've watched a few of his fights and I'm confident we have the game plan to beat him - but I can't reveal it here!

"I'll fly out to New Zealand with my team in the next few days so that we have plenty of time to get settled."

- Stuff