By Cliff Rold
It’s the moment every proud parent awaits. After eighteen years or so (this is an entirely US perspective being written from), their precious little one is all grown up and walking across the stage to get a high school diploma. In a best-case scenario, a few months later they will formally enroll, or matriculate, into a college.
That might be a little bit of what it’s like next weekend in New Zealand for the team that has developed promising 24-year old prospect Joseph Parker (18-0, 16 KO). They’ve taken him from the primary grades (four and six round bouts) all the way through to what passes for college in the paid boxing ranks. Next Saturday, Joseph Parker will attempt to become a serious contender.
Win and there is the possibility of a shot at IBF heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua (16-0, 16 KO) sometime in 2017. All Parker has to do is get by veteran Carlos Takam (33-2-1, 25 KO). It’s going to be a stern test.
Regular readers know this author has pegged for a couple of years the idea that Parker, or Joshua, is the one to watch among the rising youth at heavyweight. If their delivery is as good as their promise, a fight or series of fights between the two may well define the next generation at heavyweight. Delivery doesn’t start until the quality of opposition rises.
Takam is a clear step up for Parker. Parker, a 6’4 knockout artist with notable speed of hand and foot to go with the pop, has been managed like most promising talent so far: carefully. The biggest name on his record to date is ages ago title challenger Kali Meehan. Predictions of his upside are still mostly an eye test.
Takam isn’t Meehan. He’s a fighter still in his fighting prime who has given tough nights to quality talents. He appeared to do enough to defeat a then-undefeated and still motivated Mike Perez only to settle for a draw. He lost a hotly contested battle with Alexander Povetkin late last year in the only knockout loss of his career.
Outside of World Champion Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko, there is little argument that Povetkin is the proven class of the rest of the division. How Parker fares against Takam will say a lot about where he is and how far he has to go.
Some might ask if a win over Takam would really be enough to earn a title shot. This being boxing, earn rarely has anything to do with it. The bottom line would be this.
Takam is better than anyone Joshua or current 30-year old WBC titlist Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KO) had to face before their first title shot. He’s better than anyone Joshua has defeated and on par with the best Wilder has faced to date.
That assessment could change in a day for Wilder. Next weekend, while Parker is battling Takam, Wilder will be defending against Povetkin in Russia. Wilder will have to be better than he’s ever been to come through with the duke. As a brief aside…
…neither fight, as yet, has secured US TV. How is that happening? As the heavyweight division became more global, it was understandable and in many cases preferable for action in the class to air elsewhere. This is not one of those times. Both Parker-Takam and Wilder-Povetkin are must-see for any boxing fan and will have huge ramifications on the thank-god-it’s-happening red-hot heavyweight class. One assumes Wilder-Povetkin will ultimately make air. Parker-Takam should too. Aside over…
If Wilder and Parker both win, it just creates more of what makes heavyweight worth our full attention right now. It creates possibilities. Wilder, Parker, Joshua, and relative 37-year old elder and some form of WBA titlist Luis Ortiz (25-0, 22 KO) are so much of what the heavyweight division has missed. They are explosive, aggressive, hungry, and always in shape. In the case of Wilder and Joshua, they are also still presumed by many to be flawed.
Chin questions abound after some previous cases of the wobbles.
We don’t have those questions about Ortiz. He appears to take a shot just fine. We also don’t have them in a literal way for Parker. Sure, the question of what happens when he gets tagged will be there until he does but we haven’t seen it to make it a big part of speculation yet.
Takam might ask it in a real way for the first time. If Parker is asked to pass that test, and comes through still intact, then we might have something special at hand. The next few years of big man boxing look potentially special either way.
A couple years ago the thought was Joshua-Parker might be the destination. As the field has developed, it’s become more the case that we might see the most exciting run in the class since the 1990s. We’re starting to see depth again and there is no shortage of combinations that sound like a hell of a way to spend a night.
Mix and match the newer faces like Fury, Wilder, Joshua, Ortiz with veterans like Klitschko, Povetkin, and a returned David Haye. Okay, there’s some turkey’s in there. We’ve already seen Klitschko versus Povetkin, Haye and Fury and they were all bowling shoe ugly.
The old guys won’t stick forever and the rest will be a big part of carrying the class for the next five years. Against each other, bombs will be thrown and someone will emerge as the man among them all.
It could be Parker.
We’ll see if he can cross that stage and make his way into the heavyweight ivy leagues one week from now.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
