Parker and Whyte Meet in the Anthony Joshua Sweepstakes

There’s a heavyweight bout this weekend between two of the top contenders in the division, Joseph Parker and Dillian Whyte, and it probably has gone under the radar a little bit. Not only do Parker 24-1 (18) and Whyte 23-1 (17) have virtually identical records; the only fighter to have defeated them is one and the same, Anthony Joshua, the reigning IBF/WBA/WBO champion. Fights like Parker-Whyte don’t happen often enough in the heavyweight division, and this is one of the rare times when two upper-tier contenders in their prime are meeting with an almost guaranteed title shot in the offing for the winner.

When Joshua and Whyte met back in December of 2015 it was AJ’s 15th bout and both were undefeated. Whyte acquitted himself well and was the first fighter to visibility stun Joshua before Wladimir Klitschko knocked him down in 2017. However, Joshua proved to be too good and powerful for Whyte and eventually overwhelmed and stopped him in the seventh round.

Joshua won five consecutive bouts after beating Whyte and then faced Parker. Joshua defeated Parker by unanimous decision in his last bout, the first time he was forced to go the distance, and in the process won Parker’s WBO title. And it must be pointed out that Joshua had improved since he fought Whyte and that Parker fought a better and more confident AJ than Whyte did. But there is one caveat to that….Whyte actually tried to beat Joshua. No, Whyte didn’t go the distance but he did manage to give Joshua a brief scare whereas Parker never came close to doing that.

With both fighters having lost only to Joshua, the Parker-Whyte bout amounts to who gets the rematch with AJ first. Whyte wants it badly because even though it’s a fallacy, he thinks he was on the verge of beating Joshua when they fought. And Parker really took the apple against AJ and would love to redeem himself after barely competing with AJ during their bout.

Parker may not be as physically skilled as Whyte, but is the better fundamental boxer and is more consistent when it comes to showing up in shape. Whyte, who can be lazy, carries too much weight and has been over 250 in four of his seven fights since facing Joshua at 247. In his last fight against Lucas Browne, Whyte fought a smart tactical bout and looked good before knocking Browne out cold in the sixth round. The problem with that is that Browne, although unbeaten, hadn’t fought one elite heavyweight and in reality is only an upper-tier journeyman from a skill vantage point. But suddenly after beating Browne, Whyte is talked about in some boxing circles as if he’s the most feared contender since Sonny Liston of the late fifties.

Parker really came up lame against Joshua during their unification bout. And he wouldn’t be excoriated as badly as he has been if he’d gone out to win instead of fighting to go the distance. And based on what has been said since then by both Parker and trainer Kevin Barry, it’s apparent they’re both disappointed and slightly embarrassed by Joe’s showing.

“I told Joe you’re a much more skillful fighter than Whyte, you’ve got faster hands, and we have to fight to our strengths. This guy wants to fight you in a phone booth, and if we allow him to [do that] it will end up a slugfest, a bloody hard fight and a 50-50 one to win,” said Kevin Barry.

It’s safe to say this upcoming bout has Team Parker’s full attention and there’s a sense of urgency among them. And Barry is correct; Whyte would love this fight to take place in a phone booth. In the main this fight is a poor man’s Ali vs. Frazier with Parker assuming the role of Ali and Whyte as Frazier. In other words Parker needs to box and use the ring and avoid trading with Whyte if he can….sort of what he did versus Joshua, with the difference being AJ was content to out-jab Parker, whereas its doubtful Whyte can win the fight by playing tag and he’ll have to try and force the action on the inside.

Parker has shown a pretty good chin, and although Whyte can punch, he’s not in Joshua’s league, therefore if Parker moves and picks his spots at the right time and ties Whyte up once they’re in close, he shouldn’t get hit with many big shots. But to do that Parker will be under a physical strain to keep it up, assuming Whyte doesn’t get discouraged and stops working. Also, Whyte has a tendency to wing and get sloppy and that could be something Parker could exploit if he remains collected.

In all likelihood Parker-Whyte will go the distance and conditioning will play a big part in the outcome. And to that Parker is more reliable, even though both of their careers and futures hang in the balance as the loser will drop in the ratings and will basically have to start over, especially since each represents the best opponent he has faced other than Joshua, and being 0-2 versus the best you’ve faced won’t endear the loser to anyone.

The other conundrum handicapping Parker-Whyte is that only one of them makes for a compelling rematch with Joshua, and that’s Whyte because nobody has any interest in seeing Parker fight AJ again, whereas Whyte can lay claim that he had Joshua shook when they fought the first time. So there’s no second guessing that Joshua-Whyte II would generate much more money than Joshua-Parker II, and in boxing you ignore that factor at your own risk.

Picking the winner in this one is the equivalent of walking through a minefield. It can be expected neither will stick to their fight strategy and by the fifth or sixth round they’ll have deviated from what they wanted to do. And that leads me to believe the fight will be close and go to the scorecards.

Picking Parker to win a decision knowing what rests on Whyte being the fighter who advances, is nearly enough to scare me off. However, since my initial instinct said Parker because of the reasons already stated, I’m going to stay with that, although with much trepidation knowing promoter Eddie Hearn is looking for anything that’ll kick start the hype for Joshua-Whyte II.

Photo: Dillian Whyte and Joseph Parker are flanked by their promoters, Eddie Hearn and David Higgins.

Frank Lotierzo can be reached at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

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