By Ross Karl
I woke up this morning exhausted. Heaven knows how Joseph Parker feels.
There were twelve long rounds of nerves, anxiety and hope for everyone at Manukau last night. It was at times an uncomfortable watch, as Carlos Takam relentlessly bored forwards at Parker.
Every now and then that tension would break, as the Kiwi heavyweight unloaded a combination or made a rare attack on the body. Then when the decision was announced; the place was full of elation and relief.
Parker learned a lot last night and we learned plenty about him.
(Photosport)
We found out he could take a shot. He has guts. Beads of sweat went flying ringside as Takam landed blows on Parker. At times he seemed tired but he was never overly rocked.
You need to be able to take a shot to be Heavyweight World Champion. You will get hit by good boxers and Parker showed he was up to what Takam was dishing out.
We learnt he can go twelve rounds against a tough heavyweight, who had come to fight. It was a war and he got through it. At stages Parker looked gassed. He was probably worn down by spending too long with Takam's body leaning on him through the middle rounds. There were times where he dropped his hands. He won't be able to do that too often against Anthony Joshua. But he carried on. He took moments to recover. You can't throw punches non-stop for 12 rounds and he managed the burn out. That's a good sign.
We learnt that he can fight going backwards. He's never been pushed around a ring like that in his pro career. At times it looked like he was keeping his distance and picking his punches, at others it seemed Carlos Takam was simply dominating the ring. But, once again, Parker did what was necessary to get the decision he wanted. He got in more shots, and better shots, than Takam. You can't help feel like he looked more comfortable coming forward though.
(Photosport)
We saw again that when he throws that quick jab and doubles up with a second one, even quality boxers can't get near him. You can't help but feel he needed to throw a few more against Takam. Takam just put his hands up and kept away. It's possibly Parker's best asset. He can't afford to get caught up in brawls when he has such a good tool to avoid them.
We discovered that he's still a bit of a rough diamond. For all his speed and athleticism, Parker is regularly tempted into brawls. With each bit of ring experience he learns more about what his strengths are. He is finding out which instincts he needs to explore and which ones to avoid, and when. He's still yet to master his game plan exactly. All the talk of working the body pre-fight went out the window. Then again, at 24 and with 19 fights under his belt, he's well away from his heavyweight prime.
Most importantly Joseph Parker confirmed what everyone wanted to believe over the last four years. It's only early in his career but he's on track to match it with boxing's big boys. He's the mandatory challenger to Anthony Joshua's IBF belt and he really had to earn it last night. It was a courageous performance.
Newshub.
