Joseph Parker 'blown away' by chance meeting with Mike Tyson

  • Breaking
  • 26/05/2015

New Zealand heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker ran into a legend of the sport Mike Tyson at the cafeteria of his local pool.

Parker has been sparring with current world heavyweight champion Vladimir Klitschko ahead of his fight with German Yakup 'The Scorpion' Saglam and the Ukrainian suggested the 23-year-old Kiwi take up swimming as part of his training.

Parker, who hadn't been born when Tyson was taking the boxing world by storm in the 1980's, told Fairfax Media he was "blown away" Tyson took time to take a photo and chat with him at the pool.

"Mike used to pass time watching historical fights of the all the great fighters," Parker said. "I've started logging onto YouTube and I'm now doing the same thing too."

Parker also saw the similarities in the relationship between Tyson and his trainer, Cus D'Amato, and his own trainer Kevin Barry after watching Tyson's boxing documentaty Champs.

"What struck me is how Mike's relationship with [trainer] Cus D'Amato was very similar to my relationship with Kevin Barry," Parker said.

"I had no idea Cus D'Amato made Mike move in with him to make him and it made me realise why Kev made me move in with him."

Parker is set to return to New Zealand at the end of the week to complete his training for his fight against Saglam.

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source: newshub archive