Joseph Parker To Target Charles Martin-Anthony Joshua Winner

By Edward Chaykovsky

According to promoter Dean Lonergen, Joseph Parker will target the winner of the upcoming title clash between Charles Martin and Anthony Joshua, which is scheduled for April 9th at London's O2 Arena on April 9, live on Sky Sports Box Office.

Parker is unbeaten over 18 fights with 16 knockouts. His handlers are yet to announce his next opponent for a year where they hope to move him to a mandatory position for a title fight. Parker is ranked No 1 with the WBO, No 6 with the WBA and IBF, and No 11 with the WBA.

Joshua (15-0, 15KOs), an Olympic gold medal winner, has been fast-tracked to a world title shot. Martin captured the vacant title last month with a third round TKO of Czar Glazkov at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Parker tried his best to get a high-stakes fight with Joshua, but  Lonergen claimed that Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport, blew him off. Lonergen is hoping to get Parker mandatory title shot by January of 2017/

"The IBF mandatory is up, I think, on January 16 next year," Lonergen told Sky Sports.

"If Joseph Parker can get to the mandatory position, which is our goal, as well as being the No 1 mandatory for the WBO, the IBF champion will have to face him - if he's in that position - or relinquish the title, and no one is going to relinquish the title.

"It's absolutely a fight we would love to have. Now if Charles Martin won that fight, it would be a fight he would probably have in America, and if Anthony Joshua wins the fight, it's a fight you would have in England. If it's in England, it would be an absolutely enormous fight. It's unbelievable the interest that they are showing in the fight from this side of the world, so it will be fascinating to see what would happen if we actually got up there with a fight in England."