Kiwi heavyweight world champion Joseph Parker has plans to dominate the United Kingdom boxing scene after announcing he is going to make England his "home base".
Parker is currently training in England as he prepares to defend his WBO belt against Hughie Fury on September 24 (NZ time) in Manchester.
The fight will be his second title defence since claiming the belt late last year.
Speaking to Sky Sports UK, the 25-year-old said he is looking forward to the challenge of being based in the United Kingdom.
"I'm going to make this my home base," Parker told Sky Sport s UK.
"The heavyweight division is booming over here at the moment so I want to be part of it, I want to fight all the heavyweights out there. Heavyweight boxing is exciting again so it's great to be part of it.
"This bout is very important and we wanted to come to the UK and fight. I feel like this is the fight we're going to establish ourselves here that we're going to come here and establish ourselves here and look at fighting other bigger names that are here."
With the fight only 10 days away, Parker has been working very hard and is determined as ever to improve his record to 24-0.
To help prepare for the bout, Parker has been training at David Haye's gym. Haye is a former two-time world champion, and has been impressed with what he has seen ahead of the fight.
Haye is currently rehabilitating a torn Achilles suffered a defeat to Tony Bellew back in March.
Parker admitted he would like to face Haye after he gets past Fury.
"I've got to get past Hughie first, obviously down the road, got to look at what fights are out there and what fights there are to have.
"I feel like David can be a fight in the future. He's still in good shape, he's still fighting hard, you know, you never know what can happen.
"I followed him ever since I started boxing, I've watched a lot of his fights, I like his speed, his movement he's real agile so, it would be an interesting fight.
"I've got to get past this next fight and then hopefully see what makes sense you know. I feel like Bellew and David could be other options for me to fight in the future."
Newshub.
