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28th July proved to be an Iconic day for boxing. The O2 arena was filled with fireworks with every fight offering more than the expected Intensity. Between Dave Allen's one-punch knockout win over Nick Webb to Dereck Chisora's brutal demolition of very durable Carlos Takam, and finally the slugfest between Dillian Whyte and Joseph Parker, boxing fans and pundits got it all.
The main event between Whyte and Parker delivered on the expectations; British fans were happy but Parker-fans have no reason to be sad.
It was a difficult day for Joseph Parker, who took the beating of his life against Dillian Whyte. This fight showed that Parker is far from a finished product. He has many areas where there is still room for improvement. His weaknesses were exposed and exploited by Dillian Whyte who deserved to be the winner of the bout. Parker's defence seemed to disappear after the second round knockdown when his head collided with Whyte. It was not an actual knockdown, however, served to be enough to break his concentration. After the end of the second round, Parker was visibly vulnerable and his confidence was shaken. His coach Kevin Barry did a fine job to bring his man back from that unfortunate incident but unfortunately, the damage was done.
Parker's defence was excellent against Anthony Joshua but in this game after the 2nd round, it was almost absent.
You can check out the preview before their bout here:
Dillian Whyte was connecting with his jab at will and Parker had only begun to absorb punishment. Parker was on the back foot most of the time after the second round and his head movement, which gave huge problems to Joshua, was not to be seen much in this fight. Although Parker did not give up and remained busy, he was taking more risks and was throughout looking for that one punch which could send Whyte on the canvas. His inability to deliver the punch left him more frustrated and open.
In this process whenever he came close to Whyte to launch his offence, he got caught in the counter-attack. Soon arrived the ninth round, Parker got caught with that devastating left hook by Whyte which sent the Kiwi onto the canvas for the second time. This was the first legitimate knockdown for Parker who had not faced this situation yet in his pro and amateur career combined, including sparring.
Parker was down but not broken, he quickly got up and this showed his character. The way he got up was very impressive. Whyte caught Lucas Browne with a similar intensity left hook and that sent the Australian to sleep. That was indeed a very strong left hook and only few could have survived that, Parker was one of them.
Parker began his offence again, but now he was tired and dented. The only upside was that Whyte was even more tired than his opponent. At the end of the 11th round, Parker almost managed to send Whyte on the canvas but the bell saved him. This was again impressive from Parker because usually, it takes 3-4 rounds for a heavyweight to recover completely from that kind of brutal punch on their chin.
After Wladimir Klitschko knocked down Anthony Joshua in the 6th round, Joshua had been highly inactive for the next 4 rounds. Unfortunately, Parker did not have that many rounds left and so he had to resume his offence. The body was tired and bruised but the mind was still working.
In the 12th round, Parker finally managed to land a fine straight right hand on Whyte which knocked the British down. With 25 seconds left in the fight, Whyte had to struggle to survive, without being knocked out. Somehow he managed to do that and Parker's late offence proved to be too little too late.
This fight can prove to be a great learning curve for the Kiwi as he showed some serious vulnerabilities, which would be an obstacle to his objective of becoming the unified and 2 time heavyweight champion of the world. Although Parker is 6'4'' tall, he looks a smaller fighter in front of guys like Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. He needs to improve on his power and conditioning because, in this fight, Dillian Whyte was not scared of Parker's power. Until and unless he starts doing more weight training and works on his power, his opponents are not going to give him the respect they give to Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
The second vulnerability which could be noticed was his defence. Although Parker's defence is already a weak point of his game until now his pacey movement had been able to make things work for him. Parker usually fights with his guards down, and he needs to change that because during the end game when the legs are tired and movement is slowed down, only a solid guard can protect the boxer; otherwise you leave yourself open for some devastating punches.
The biggest reason why Parker lost was that Dillian Whyte was a better fighter on the day. Whyte showed heart and huge character. His aggressiveness and regular brawling in the fight had an effect on Parker's concentration, but then all this was expected from 'The Body Snatcher' as he is known for his rough upbringing.
The fans should not be mistaken that this Dillian Whyte is very different from the one who got knocked out against Joshua. This Dillian Whyte was stronger, more confident, more brutal, more experienced, more clinical and extremely dangerous. Parker deserves huge credit for stepping up on this career threatening challenge. If a rematch between Dillian Whyte against Anthony Joshua is arranged, then that will again be a 50-50 fight like the Parker-Whyte clash was.
Parker fought against a much better version of Dillian Whyte than the one who fought against Anthony Joshua.
Joseph Parker can now look up to legendary Wladimir Klitschko, who after facing 3 defeats in a short time span, shaped up his career again and became a legend of the game. Today Wladimir is counted among one of the all-time greatest. Klitschko transformed himself from an aggressive puncher to a highly technical and clinically defensive machine who ruled over the heavyweight division for 11 years.
If Parker manages to learn and improve as well, then he will be back. Hopefully, we will soon see a bigger, stronger Joseph Parker with an improved defence who will bang and again make noise in the heavyweight division.
You can see the post-fight interview here:
