Joseph Parker‘s resurgence has been one of the most welcome and intriguing storylines in the heavyweight division recently, capped off by back-to-back wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang.
The New Zealand native suffered a bruising loss to Joe Joyce back in 2022 – the third of his career – but went back to the drawing board with coach Andy Lee and managed to return a more focused fighter.
His upset win over Wilder was particularly impressive for the manner it was carried out. Parker scored a near shutout on the cards and took the fight to the American feared for his knockout power.
To then face ‘Big Bang’ Zhang – another ferocious puncher and a southpaw to boot – almost looked like a step too far for Parker, who was dropped in rounds three and eight. Again, he managed it on the scorecards to move ahead.
Zhang and Wilder have now been matched-up together. Speaking to Through The Ropes, Parker said it was a pivotal moment in the careers of both men.
“Both of those guys have the ability to knock each other out. When they say it’s a must-win fight, this is one of those. The winner goes on to much bigger fights and the lose gets closer to retiring.
With that fight, Zhang is dangerous in the first half and then sort of fades a bit, whereas Wilder is dangerous for the whole fight. Whoever can land a punch first really, because they’re both big power punchers.”
As for who hits harder, the 32-year-old gives that honour to the heavyweight from China, although admits Wilder may not have landed flush enough to tell.
“I would say Zhang [hit harder] cause he dropped me twice and landed the cleaner shots. Wilder did hit hard but never really clean. I was lucky my hand was up to catch his punches.”
Wilder and Zhang battle it out on June 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
