Parker Confident He Can Win Decision Over Joshua in the UK

By Keith Idec

Recent history has made Joseph Parker confident he can win a decision against Anthony Joshua on Saturday night.

In just his last fight, New Zealand’s Parker traveled to the United Kingdom and won a majority decision over British challenger Hughie Fury. The United States’ John Madfis (118-110) and England’s Terry O’Connor (118-110) scored their 12-round fight for Parker, while American Rocky Young had it even (114-114) on September 23 in Manchester, England.

The wide distances by which he lost on the cards of Madfis and O’Connor infuriated Fury (20-1, 10 KOs), who filed a failed protest with the WBO.

The enormously popular Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs), the IBF/IBO/WBA heavyweight champion, is British boxing’s cash cow, thus there’s much more at stake financially Saturday night at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales (Sky Sports Box Office; Showtime). New Zealand’s Parker (24-0, 18 KOs), who owns the WBO championship, still feels as though he can win on points if he becomes the first opponent to take Joshua the distance in their scheduled 12-round title unification fight.

“I’m not concerned, and the reason I say that is because we have good officials,” Parker said during a recent conference call. “I trust my team has done a great job to get neutral officials, and like I said before, my focus is on the fight. I wanna go out there and do my best, and whatever happens, happens. But I trust the officials to do the right thing and, you know, give the right decision.”

The judges for Joshua-Parker haven’t been officially announced. New Zealand’s Ian Scott has been revealed as one of the judges, however.

Scott has scored seven of Parker’s 24 professional fights, only one of which went the distance. Scott scored that bout – a 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Cameroon’s Carlos Takam – by a slim margin for Parker (115-113) in May 2016 in Manukau City, New Zealand.

Parker’s handlers demanded during negotiations that at least one judge for Joshua-Parker had to come from New Zealand, particularly if one judge is from England. Italy’s Giuseppe Quartarone has been assigned as the referee for Joshua-Parker.

“It was very important for us when we were formulating this contract that we had independent, neutral judges,” Kevin Barry, Parker’s trainer, said. “And we have three judges – one from the United States, one from the UK and one from New Zealand. And we have an Italian referee.

“So we’re very happy with the names who have been put forward, and there’ll be no disputing the decision. We believe that we have fair, very experienced officials that will do a good job on Saturday, the 31st.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.