If we know anything about positive performance-enhancing drug tests by now, we know that the search for clarity is often long and convoluted and that an “update” is seldom satisfying.
In fact, usually an “update” is not an update at all, but instead a way of pacifying the people asking questions and treating the bruise with concealer. It is a way to bide time, control a narrative. It is a way of showing there is nothing to hide.
In the case of Joseph Parker, the New Zealand heavyweight whose defeat against Fabio Wardley in October was compounded by a positive drug test for cocaine, there is already a sense of impatience. There is impatience on the part of Parker, no doubt, and there is also impatience on the part of those wanting to see Parker clear his name and resume his career.
Parker, after all, is a popular figure in the sport and a man whose personality seems at odds with the “crime” for which he has been accused. Not only that, he is now in his fighting prime, and at the age of 34 the last thing he wants is to have his career stall or, worse, peter out.
It is for that reason questions are being asked regarding his positive drug test on the day of the Wardley fight. It is for that reason there is a hunger for updates.
“A lot of this drug testing, we need to get it faster, we need to get a clearer routine,” Parker’s manager Spencer Brown told BoxNation this week. “There are a few boxers at the moment in no-man’s land; they don’t know if they’re here or there. If you’re a young lad it’s not very good for your brain.
“But Joe Parker, I vehemently defend him. He’s not taken any drugs. I think there’s been contamination. The public will find out about it in due course and I’m just hoping this doesn’t take forever.”
Sadly, while it might not take “forever”, this kind of process does typically drag on and leave the boxer seeking clearance in a bit of a limbo state. This we have seen countless times in the past, of course, most notably with Conor Benn (who produced two positive tests for clomiphene in 2022), yet our familiarity with it does little to ease our frustration or make us any more patient. At best, we become resigned to it, that’s all. We accept that we must wait. We accept that we will never know the truth. We accept, too, that an update will never be an update.
“He’s [Parker] a 34-year-old heavyweight who we all love watching,” continued Brown. “He won Fight of the Year last year with Wardley and I still think it could have gone either way, that fight, if he didn’t get caught [in round 11]. I still want to see him fight again. I’m desperate to see that. We’ve got a case. I’m not allowed to talk about it.”
The same goes for Parker, the man in the middle and the only one who knows. Last month, in Australia, he was asked by Boxing Scene about the positive test and the path to getting cleared, and said, “Listen, there’s not really much we can do or say because there’s a bit of a process going on, but I do believe – well, hopefully – we get cleared soon.”
Parker did, however, start to open up a bit when pushed by Declan Warrington for more than just an “update”. When, for example, he was prompted to reflect on events surrounding the Wardley fight, as well as potential consequences of the test result, Parker did away with soundbites and platitudes. “You start questioning everything,” he admitted. “You start questioning, ‘Why did I have that cup of tea?’ Or, ‘Why did I do this?’ Or, ‘Why did I do that?’ There’s a lot of things you think about.”
Asked then whether he had ever used drugs of any kind, recreational or otherwise, Parker, 36-4 (24 KOs), said: “In the past I’ve enjoyed myself. I wouldn’t say ‘recreational drugs’, but I went out and had a few beers and that. That’s the old me, when I was a young fighter. Now, after every fight, all I do is go home to the wife and kids. My life is on track. I’m focused on living the best that I can live and doing the best that I can do.”
