A Closer Look at Anthony Joshua Vs Joseph Parker
By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White
As a fellow Brit, I love Anthony Joshua! I admire his passion, his dedication to his craft, his humility and his charming persona, although, I have always had my worries about him, as a result of his body type and his conditioning…
I am not at all criticizing him and in actual fact, I hope that I’m wrong, but AJ’s muscle bound; almost bodybuilder type physique often worries me and leads me to think that when he comes to fighting a tough, durable and fully fit opponent, he may gas out in the later rounds.
Three fights for me which have shown glimmers of this being reality, are the fights he had against: Wladimir Klitschko, Dillian Whyte and most recently Carlos Takam. Obviously, Joshua made it through all of these fights and has ended up stopping all 20 of his opponents thus far, but my question is – what if AJ has to go the full 12 rounds against a fully fit; high pressure fighter?
This is what makes his next fight so interesting to me! Although I don’t think Joseph Parker is a huge threat to Joshua, I do think that he’ll be hungry to prove that he is a worthy champion and I think that he has something about him, which will make him dig deeper than anyone else who has fought Joshua before.
In my opinion, Joseph Parker’s best chance against AJ is to try and apply constant pressure, using his hand and foot speed to his advantage whilst moving his head in a similar way to that of the heavyweight legend, “Smokin’” Joe Frazier. I believe that by consistently applying high pressure, he will force Joshua way outside his comfort zone in regards to his cardiovascular conditioning and we’ll know that when Joshua’s hands begin to drop.
It appears that I’m not alone in thinking that Parker could cause an upset, as Tyson Fury has also expressed the same thoughts in recent interviews and I have seen similar opinions from other boxing fans throughout several forums and on YouTube videos alike.
For me, the main worry with AJ is not anything to do with his boxing skillset or his ability to take a punch, as I believe that in that regard he is more than capable, but as I’ve said already, it his muscle mass that keeps me on edge whenever he steps into the squared circle.
Joshua is so muscle bound that he requires a lot more energy and therefore fitness than someone with less muscle and that’s the one big disadvantage that he has with his body type. Yes, it looks great and he must look unbelievably scary when he’s stood opposite you as the bell’s about to ring, but if Parker can go in there, confident within himself, as he seems to be, then he may be able to make AJ work outside his comfort zone and then my question may very well be answered…
Obviously, the one thing we have to take into account is Joshua’s ferocious power! It’s all well and good saying that Parker needs to apply that constant pressure, but will he be able to maintain that for the full 12 rounds whilst also taking some of AJ’s best punches? I doubt that very much.
We must also remember Joshua’s amateur pedigree, the quality of his training camps and the man in his corner, the very successful boxing trainer: Robert McCracken. Another interesting thing to consider is that Joshua is looking to come into this fight considerably lighter than in his previous two contests and he will have had another solid training camp with a lot of adaptations and improvements being made.
With all of the above said and done, I do think that AJ will probably walk away victorious again; setting up a huge fight with Deontay Wilder, unless Dillian Whyte now gets in there first! However, I also feel that Parker could cause an upset, if he gets his game plan right and can avoid AJ’s biggest punches.
I guess we will find out come Saturday March 31st at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff; until then all we can do is guess as to which of these two giants will come out on top!
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