New Zealand Heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker has some big plans for 2018.
He would like to fight Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Tony Bellew. That is how it would happen if he were to realise his dream schedule.
Parker’s reps are engaged in some serious negotiations for their WBO world champion, trying to arrange a unification fight that would see parker risk the WBO belt in the quest to take the IBF and WBA belts from Anthony Joshua.
The prospects for that match are looking positive. The time frame is looking like late in March of 2018.
The next step for the winner of that fight, which obviously, Parker hopes is he, would be to go after Wilders WBC title.
The winner of that one would be the undisputed world champion, although the world of boxing is seldom without one dispute or another.
Parker certainly has an ambitious itinerary. He told ESPN, “I’d like to fight Joshua in the UK as that’s where the draw card is. I’d also like to fight Wilder in America in Vegas and then I’d like to fight Tony Bellew. Those are the fights I want to make happen in 2018.”
Logic indicates that in order to receive serious consideration for fights two and three, he would have to win the first, lest he be relegated to re-establishing his credentials against lesser opponents.
The boxing camps have been working on a fight with Parker and Bellew, Parker saying, “I’d love to fight Tony Bellew. We had discussions to fight when David Haye pulled out of the fight but we weren’t in a full camp so not able to jump in and fill his place.”
Dream year aside, Parker has a deal to fight Australian Lucas Brown if the bout with Joshua does not materialise.
He also has a Russian boxer, Alexander Povetkin, another British fighter, Dillian Whyte, and even some options involving China.