Joseph Parker turned 33 in January and knows that age is all relative. He knows, for example, that a man of 33 is deemed old in the eyes of their child, but young in the eyes of their parents and indeed anybody over that age. Likewise, within his own profession he will know that some boxers are considered washed up and vulnerable at 33, whereas others, particularly heavyweights, are considered in their prime, with their best years still ahead of them.
As for Parker himself, he is someone who benefits from both youth and experience. He has, on the one hand, already achieved a lot in his 33 years, having turned professional in 2012, but he has also never been better or more successful than he is now, at 33.
“I feel like an old fighter because I’ve been a pro for 12 years, and was a world champion at 24 years old, but then I feel like a young fighter because it feels like I’ve only just begun,” Parker explained. “When I say that I’m talking about this formula we have now. The structure. The people involved. Andy Lee takes care of the boxing and the technique and skills and combinations and footwork and then George [Lockhart] is working on everything else: nutrition, rest, recovery, strength and conditioning. I’m only understanding it now because these guys have shown me what it is to be a world champion. It’s not like the team I had before was bad or anything. We trained according to what we had and what we knew back then, and we train to what we have and know now. That’s what makes me feel like a young fighter.”
Change will do that, of course. It will give somebody a fresh impetus and a new outlook on life. It’s often why men who reach middle age suddenly buy flash cars, dress differently, experiment with new music, or, if really wanting to risk it all, chase younger women. It’s why they tend to fear the opposite: stasis, mundanity, the slow decline of the second half. Give a man, or fighter, a hint of comfort and they will only seek to defy it or blame it should it not provide either the satisfaction or the results they are looking for.
“You always believe in yourself but when you don’t get the results you start asking yourself questions,” said Parker, whose three defeats to date have come against Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte, and Joe Joyce. “Why am I not getting the results? I’m doing everything right, I’m training hard, I’m leaving my family for eight to 10 weeks. Why is it not working? Why is it not coming together? All these questions are the reason why I made the change [in team]. Again, the team I had before was great. But I have found something different, something new, something exciting.
“It’s changed big time,” he said, speaking now of his relationship with boxing. “I love the journey that I’m on. I love the process. I love the structured programme we have in camp. The younger me never really appreciated what he had and what it all meant, the position I was in. I was one of the top fighters in the world but I never really took anything with 100 per cent effort. I did train but I never really gave it everything I had. I never really lived the life outside of camp. I would eat whatever I wanted, hang out with my mates, and take shortcuts. Whereas now I feel like I live the life. I have a great balance between my family life and my training life, my rest, my recovery, my nutrition. If you compare me now to the fighter I was before, there’s no comparison.”
The young Joseph Parker was hardly a tearaway or a delinquent in need of redirecting. Instead, he was a man to whom fame came quickly, especially in New Zealand, and of whom big things were expected the second he turned pro. Of course, once these things were achieved, Parker then stumbled upon the realisation many boxers in his position will stumble upon. He discovered, as WBO heavyweight champion, that the completion of a goal left no fuel for additional progress and failed even to bring the kind of contentment a boxer expects when hearing those words: “And the new…”
Rather than fired up, a young Joseph Parker felt suddenly old, restless, bored. It was only a matter of time before the belt he had won became a heavy burden to carry or, worse, a noose around his neck.
“When you have the talent as a young fighter, you don’t want to work hard,” he said. “But that shows in the ring. There have been many fights I have had where I relied only on talent. I did work, but not hard. I wasn’t preparing properly.
“Back then I went into camp out of shape. I used camp as a way of getting in shape. Now I come into camp and I’m already in great shape. I’ve done my work with George and when I’m with Andy it’s not so much about getting into shape as it is learning and progressing and levelling up.”
Four months after losing his WBO heavyweight title against Anthony Joshua in 2018, Parker lost again, this time against Dillian Whyte, another Brit. It seemed, back then, to confirm Parker’s ceiling and his limitations and few expected him to turn his career around or launch another run at a version of the world heavyweight title.
Even when he later got back on track, winning six fights in a row, any burgeoning revival was abruptly halted by Joe Joyce, who stopped Parker in 11 rounds in 2022. That, for many, was the last bit of evidence required; proof that Joseph Parker was finished as a force at world level.
And yet, how wrong they were, for the following year Parker boxed four times and won four times. He won fights he was supposed to win and he also won a fight he was not supposed to win against Deontay Wilder, considered by most to be the heavyweight division’s hardest puncher. That win alone restored Parker’s confidence and this confidence he then took into 2024, a year in which he defused the threat of Zhilei Zhang, arguably the heavyweight division’s second hardest puncher.
“When other people question you, you have to produce,” he said. “It gives you extra motivation. I know, and my team knows, what I can do in the ring. But other people, because of past performances, didn’t really know what to expect from me in those fights. I had extra drive and motivation. I knew what I could do.
“Even now people are writing me off. They’re saying I beat an old Wilder and a tired Zhang. But that doesn’t matter.”
On Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Parker will have to now call upon both his youth and his experience to deal with the late-notice threat of Martin Bakole, one of the heavyweight division’s real dangermen.
He was of course originally meant to be fighting Daniel Dubois this weekend only to discover on Thursday that Dubois had been struck down by a viral infection and was therefore unable to defend his IBF heavyweight title. This then led to a frantic search for a replacement opponent and Parker having to essentially tear up a lot of the preparation he had done – at least in terms of subject-specific work – and ready himself for a new name and a new threat.
In Bakole, 22-1 (16), he is presented with an opponent of similar stature and style to Dubois, at least to a certain extent, but is experienced enough to acknowledge the hazards of agreeing to a short-notice fight. After all, despite being in pristine physical condition, Parker has for three months been preparing to fight Daniel Dubois, not Martin Bakole.
Even so, Joseph Parker, 35-3 (23), knows as well as anyone that the past cannot be changed and that the future cannot be planned. He also knows that perspective sadly comes to us late and that experience, this most valuable asset, can only be achieved through enduring the most uncomfortable of situations.
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