From Samoa, With Gloves: Joseph Parker Ready to Rejoin Top Tier of Heavyweights

Statistically speaking, Joseph Parker is involved in the wrong sport.

Yes, the 27-year-old Parker is a former WBO heavyweight champion, not so very long ago widely regarded as one of the division’s leading lights and possibly even a superstar-in-the-making. He won that vacant title by posting a majority decision over Andy Ruiz Jr. in Auckland, New Zealand, on Dec. 10, 2016. (You might have noticed that Ruiz has been in the news of late.) But Parker’s reign proved brief; after one successful defense against Hughie Fury (cousin of lineal champ Tyson Fury), he relinquished the key to his share of the throne room by wide unanimous decision in a unification showdown with Anthony Joshua on March 31, 2018, before a sellout crowd of 78,000 in Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, the first time in 21 professional bouts that Joshua had not won by knockout or stoppage.

Parker (25-2, 19 KOs) took another step backward when he followed the loss to Joshua with a much tighter unanimous-decision setback to Dillian Whyte on July 28 of last year in London, but he got back on the winning track when he scored a third-round knockout of Alexander Flores on Dec. 15 in Christchurch, N.Z. He still isn’t all the way back, but the New Zealander of Samoan heritage could again emerge as a leading contender when he takes on countryman Alex Leapai (32-7-4, 26 KOs) in a scheduled 12-rounder Saturday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Arena in Providence, Rhode Island. The bout will be televised via streaming service DAZN, and is the lead-in to the main event pitting WBO middleweight champion and Providence native Demetrious “Boo Boo” Andrade (27-0, 17 KOs) against Poland’s Maciej Sulecki (28-1, 11 KOs).

So, if Parker is again on the verge of elbowing his way into the heavyweight spotlight, why would anyone think that he might have made it even bigger in another sport? It’s because his Samoan heritage suggests that people from his tiny Pacific island, with a population of only 50,000 and located 2,600 miles south of Hawaii, are much more apt to score roster spots in the NFL than to achieve stardom in boxing.

At 6-foot-4 and generally in the neighborhood of 240 pounds, Joseph Parker – it’s so much easier to spell and pronounce than his Samoan name of Lupesolial La’aliolemalietoa – bears a striking resemblance to the late, great linebacker Junior Seau, a Californian of Samoan descent who was a 2015 posthumous inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after 20 seasons starring for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots. But it’s not just facial similarities that makes some people think of Seau when they look at Parker. They are also approximations of one another physically, not exactly a surprise when you consider that football players of Samoan heritage constitute a remarkably outsized percentage of Division I and NFL players.

A staggering 33 players from Samoa or of Samoan descent – Parker was born in Auckland and continues to reside there – have made it to the NFL, and some 200-plus have performed for Division I programs in the U.S. In what would seem to be an incredible statistical anomaly, a Samoan man is 56 times more likely to make the NFL than any American male. Many of those players are thick-bodied linemen, their strength and girth the possible result of having long feasted on such island dishes as palusai, faia eleni, fa’apapa and fa’ausi.

So while the idea of Parker in a helmet and shoulder pads is intriguing, he might, by virtue of the WBO belt that once was his, might already qualify as the best fighter of Samoan descent although that distinction might still be held by squatty former heavyweight contender David Tua (52-5-2, 43 KOs), now 46, best known for knocking out two-time future WBA champ John Ruiz 19 seconds into the first round and going the distance with WBC/IBF titlist Lennox Lewis. Also making some noise during his heavyweight heyday, if not quite at the same level as Parker and Tua, was Jimmy Thunder (35-14, 28 KOs), now 53.

Interestingly, Parker, like so many other Samoan athletes, has a history of struggling to keep his weight in a manageable range. He said he is in the best shape of his career, which if correct could make for a short night against the 39-year-old, Samoa-born Leapai who is based in Australia.

“Over the past six years of being a professional this is the first time that I’ve come into camp at a good weight,” Parker said. “I’m enjoying camp much more as a result, I think, because we’re working more on skills and technique rather than focusing on losing weight. I feel faster, I feel everything is clicking, less injuries, everything is on track.”

Leapai is a late substitute for two-time world title challenger Eric Molina (27-5, 19 KOs), the 37-year-old veteran whose third bid for the big prize was thwarted because Matchroom Boxing, under whose promotional aegis Parker will be making his debut, could not reach contractual terms with Molina’s promoter, Don King, still as argumentative as ever at the negotiating table at the ripe old age of 87.

But the identity of the guy in the other corner, Molina or Leapai, is of little concern to Parker if he is indeed as much up to the mark as he claims to be. He dares to believe that a victory, particularly a rousing one, puts him right back in the mix for a rematch with new three-alphabet-belt champ Ruiz or former conqueror Joshua.

“With each opponent you see what their style brings and you adjust accordingly what you do in the ring,” Parker said. “There’s a lot that I am doing that I am excited about, like throwing different combinations. I’m just looking forward to putting it all on display.

“A stoppage would be nice. That’s the goal going into every fight. I just have to change the mindset to not only go in there and win, but to go in and knock out someone and make a statement. I want to make that statement.”

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