Joseph Parker is being considered as a possible candidate to face IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois who will defend against him on February 22 in Riyadh. Dubois may be too strong, too thin, and too thin for the 32-year-old Parker, who has become a defensive fighter.
Anthony Joshua doesn’t seem interested in a rematch with Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) at this point because of the injury he’s recovering from, and he wouldn’t be ready any time soon.
Former WBO champion Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) put himself in position to challenge for the title by defeating Zhilei Zhang and Deontay Wilder in back-to-back fights.
While many fans were excited about those fights, Parker wasn’t that big in either of them. It was a matter of his opponents being too old and shy, not throwing. Zhang, 40, looks formidable, rarely dropping anything and exhaling after five rounds. Wilder, 39, wasn’t throwing anything and was just walking.
Parker’s best wins in the past two years have been Wilder and Zhang. Those guys were too old to clearly understand where he is and if he has improved since his 11th round loss to Joe Joyce on September 24, 2022.
I watched those three fights and I haven’t seen Parker improve since the Joyce fight. What has changed is that he has fought fights that have not returned to boxing because of their growth.
When Zhang threw punches, he knocked Parker down twice, and was about to be knocked out in the eighth round. If Zhang had continued to throw the eighth, he would have easily taken out Parker. If you put Dubois in Zhang’s place that night, Parker would have been eliminated. He wouldn’t make it to the eighth round because he’s rabbit and nervous.
“Dubois is confused by boxers, and Joseph Parker has many ways to win,” said Chris Algieri speaking to Probox TV about the possible fight between the IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker on February 22.
Algieri did not mention that Dubois was knocked out by Oleksandr Usyk last year and should have won that fight. But even if you want to say that he deserved to lose, he has been much better in his recent fights.
“This guy has a lot of versatility, and I don’t think Dubois has seen anything close to that except for Usyk, and he saw how that turned out. There was a lot of frustration, and it looked like he was giving up,’” Algieri said.
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