Zach Parker understands the importance of impressing against Jack Arnfield

Zach Parker is keen to show exactly what he is capable of when he fights Jack Arnfield at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England, on July 20.

In March, Tyron Zeuge was positioned as the final hurdle between Parker and the big fight he has been so close to for so long.

Things didn’t go quite to plan. First, Zeuge missed weight and then Parker was dropped for the first time in his career by the former WBA super middleweight world titleholder. Although Parker, 30, composed himself and boxed his way to a unanimous decision victory, he didn’t make the exciting, explosive performance impression he would have liked.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to stew on things for too long. Liam Davies’ withdrawal from his fight with Shabaz Masoud opened up a slot on Queensberry’s latest “Magnificent Seven” card, and Parker leapt at an unexpectedly quick opportunity to erase the memory of the fight with Zeuge to get his career moving forward again.

Parker (24-1, 17 KOs) has made his name at super middleweight, but the fight with Arnfield (26-3, 6 KOs) has been made just below the light heavyweight limit.

The tall, wiry Parker is a strong super middleweight but has the frame to carry 175 pounds comfortably. Since returning from the badly broken hand that forced him to retire after just four rounds of his fight with John Ryder in November 2022, he has said yes to a whole host of names, from Dmitry Bivol and Diego Pacheco to Anthony Yarde and David Morrell.

Parker knows that in order to put himself into the mix for those names again, it is imperative that he makes up for lost time and does an impressive job on Arnfield, from Blackpool, England. Provided he gets past that challenge, Parker told BoxingScene that he is open to competing in either division.

“This one’s made at 12 stones, 5 pounds. I’m still in between, really,” he said. “If there’s a big fight at super middle, I can make it quite comfortably, but this was late notice. Making weight is a gradual process – especially somebody my size making super middle – so we didn’t want to just kill ourselves trying to do it with only a few weeks’ notice, so this one’s at light heavyweight.”

Parker doesn’t have to look far to see just how dramatically things can turn around.

Willy Hutchinson suffered a shock defeat to Lennox Clarke at super middleweight, but he has found a new lease on life at light heavyweight.

Hutchinson’s impressive victory over Craig Richards on the Queensberry versus Matchroom “5 vs. 5” show catapulted him into an interim WBO world title fight with Joshua Buatsi and a slot on the undercard of the fight between IBF heavyweight titleholder Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sept. 21.

Parker’s main objective is to tempt one of the world’s best super middleweights into the ring, but if that proves impossible, he would happily enter the thriving British 175-pound scene, where the likes of Buatsi, Hutchinson, Richards, Dan Azeez and Lyndon Arthur are all active and seemingly willing to engage each other.

“One hundred percent,” he said. “I boxed Buatsi in the amateurs and I was winning on all the scorecards but got a big cut over my left eye. I’m not afraid of any of those fights. That’s what I’m [doing] in boxing. I’m 30 now, I want to push on. I want to be in massive fights on massive shows, like the one at Wembley. If something like that gets made next, I’d take it with both hands.

“There are still big fights to be made at super middleweight, though. If they say, ‘Go to America,’ then I’d jump at that, too.

“I’ve got to get past Jack Arnfield on July 20 first, though. That’s my focus.”