Joseph Parker has tasted some serious heavyweight power from the likes of Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang.
Impressively, the former WBO world champion from New Zealand has only lost one of those fights, and that was against Joshua back in 2018. Even then, he was at the time the first man to take Joshua the full 12 rounds having managed to nullifying his power.
He did the same with both Wilder and Zhang, though he did hit the canvas twice on his way to a points win versus the Chinese powerhouse.
His reward for all this is a shot at becoming a two-time world champion against Daniel Dubois. The pair face off on February 22 with the winner of that fight taking the IBF world title into a possible undisputed showdown with unified ruler Oleksandr Usyk sometime later in 2025.
Speaking to First Round, Parker was asked to compare the power of them all including other opponents like DIllian Whyte, Derek Chisora and Joe Joyce, but he went with the man who beat him for the WBO title.
“I would say Andy Ruiz. It’s like a shock. When he hits you, because of the speed and power, your whole body goes ‘woah.’ He’s the one I felt the most because of the shock and the speed.”
Parker will be hoping to stay safe when he takes on Dubois, and many people are backing him to do just that on a huge card in Saudi Arabia that is topped by the rematch between light heavyweights Dimitri Bivol and undisputed champion Artur Beterbiev.
