Speaker 1: What is my great pleasure to welcome to the podcast
my old friend, the former WBO Heavyweight Chamber of the
World now getting ready to challenge for the IBF heavyweight title.
It is one Joe Parker. Joe, thank you very much
for doing this. You have a very significant fight, as
I mentioned here, a challenge Daniel Dubois for the IVF
heavyweight title. It will take place on February twenty second.
You are the co feature of the rematch between Arthur
Better bav and Dimetri Bioble for the undisputed light Heavyweight
Championship that's taking place in Riad, Saudi Arabia. So welcome
to the show. I'm very excited to talk to you because,
as I were saying to you before we started to
record this, it's been a minute since we've chatted.
Speaker 2: Speak a minute by that. Thanks for having me on
the show. And yes, I'm looking forward to this massive challenge,
not only finding any to bofl IVF World Championship, but
also being on a massive cod and I'm looking forward
to putting on a good display and been training huh,
So I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: Well, you have faced Joseph Parker, so many top quality
opponents rout your career, whether you have won fights, lost
the fights, whatever. And I have to tell you, I
talked to boxing people, promoters, managers, TV folks all the time,
and I have never heard anybody say anything about Joseph
Parker other than yeah, he'll fight anybody that we give
to him, anybody that we put in front of him.
What is it about your mentality that is like you
don't care, you just I mean, all they gotta do
is go on your box wreck and look at the
caliber of opponents you fought throughout your career. What is
it about you that makes you just say, hey, I'll
I fight whoever they stick in front of me.
Speaker 2: And then being involved in boxing as a fighter, you
want to be champions of the world. But also there's
another side of me, and I'm sure there are other
fighters as well that you want to fight the pitch
in the world and you'll want to fight everyone, and
you've never turned on the fight.
Speaker 3: And I think that's been the case in my prill
where has given me.
Speaker 2: Fights And even like you said, win will lose, I
fought nearly everyone and.
Speaker 3: I'll fight everyone.
Speaker 2: I feel like now like I've been boxing for a
living twelve years now. And I have mentioned it before,
but I feel like now when you've just found what
really works for me, you know, I got a great team.
I had a great team before, I got a great
team now. I feel like now I'm only just getting
into my prime. I'm understanding what I'm doing. I'm enjoying
you waye more and now, and I'm ready to keep
it being involved in big fights.
Speaker 1: Well, like you said, you got a big fight coming
up on February twenty second, let's talk a little bit
about Daniel Dui, who seems like a very a very
good opponent, a guy that's finding his own stride, as
you have done in your career. Also, so, he got
knocked out by Joe by Joe Joyce, a common opponent
with you, that was back in twenty twenty. A lot
of people were very negative about the way that that
fight ended, even though he was legitimately injured. He won
a bunch of fights after that. Then he got knocked
out by Alexander Usik challenging him for the unified titles
in a fight where you know, frankly didn't really even
compete all that well, and a lot of people kind
of wrote him off, but then he's got in this
excellent string. He beat Jerald Miller, gave him his first loss.
He beat Philip Herkovich by the TKO, caught him up
real bad, ended up getting the interim title, got elevated,
and then he obviously scored the huge victory against Joseph
against not Joseph Parker against Anthony Joshua in a massive
knockout that took place in the in the in the
September time frame last year. Which is the real Duboir?
Is it the guy that's looked maybe uh shaky, let's say,
against Usick and got stopped by Joe Joyce, Or is
it the guy that we've seen, especially over the last
three fights, where he's really put it together against good
quality opposition.
Speaker 2: I think he can only take what you've seen ridden
recent times. I know that he has been stopped by
Joe Joyce. I was a while ago, like you mentioned,
twenty twenty was it?
Speaker 3: And then you know, you got.
Speaker 2: The fight with Usick, who's a masterclass and also you know,
very skilled movement, you know, faints, handspeed, all this, and
then then you like you say, Dubois been on a
run and the middle of fight I thought, I don't
know that he was going to win.
Speaker 3: All these fights. I thought, you know, because he's had.
Speaker 2: Quitting him before, it might be you know, it might
be something they might lean towards when times do get
hard in the fight. But he has shown a lot
more maturity in a way that he's supposed to fight. Confidence,
self belief, and he's shown he's showing what he can
do in the ring, you know.
Speaker 3: The fight head. He's want to move by knockout. So
he is hot, sky high and confidence at the moment.
Speaker 1: So he obviously had a huge knockout against Anthony Joshua.
I mean that was probably one of the knockouts of
the year in twenty twenty four. When you fought Anthony
Joshua and you're a great, big, huge unification fight back
in twenty eighteen, he didn't knock you out. He won
a you know, a decision that it was pretty clear cut,
you know, in handing you that defeat. So you have those,
you know, you both have the Anthony Joshua was the
common opponent, a guy you lost to, but a guy
he just blew away. Do you think there's anything to
the concept of the that the common opponent means anything
going into this fight, I don't think.
Speaker 2: I think times are different, you know, from the twenty
six year old fighter who was trying to unify myself
against Joshua as a totally different fighting out and physically
and mentally.
Speaker 3: I think he you know, when you approach it fight,
you have.
Speaker 2: To look at the recent performances and that's what he
can sort of take from me. You can't really, I mean,
you can always revert back to type. Things do get hot,
you can, But I think that with Dupau's performances, he's
showing that when things do get hot in the fights,
he can push through that. You know that haw should
he's been for before.
Speaker 1: So you're not expecting then that you're expecting the Dubois
that showed the heart as opposed to the guy that
maybe packed it in.
Speaker 2: I'm sure I'm expecting that the Bois that we've seen recently. Yeah,
the one that's showing hot, the one that's showing grit
and determination and a bit of dog in these fights
that we've seen.
Speaker 1: So we talked about his excellent run that he's been
on those in those recent fights that's really catapulted him
to the top of the weight class other than let's
say Alexander Usk, you know who is the world champion,
but you, you, yourself, Joe, have had a tremendous run yourself.
I mean, ever since that loss against Joe Joyce, which
was a heck of a fight that was back in
what twenty and twenty two, that you've won a bunch
of fights in are all. So you've won five fights
in a row. Now, they weren't all the elite guys,
but you were super active and you did beat two
of the top guys in the division in back to
back fights. You had the big win against Deontay Wilder
and then you had to win against the Jilly Jang.
So I think those are pretty much two of the
best big wins in heavyweight boxing over the last few years,
you know, other than maybe uh Sik you know way
Fury beating Wilder two times in a row. So I
wonder what has changed for you since the loss against
Joe that allowed you to put together an excellent run.
And on top of that, in that run, have those
two elite victories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you have a loss, I'm not sure about
other fighters, but me personally, I had lost and I
started asking myself questions. You know, I've been sacrificing being
away from the family for a long time. I left
my family in New Zealand, training England, doing everything I
thought was right, and then I got a big loss.
Speaker 3: To Joey Joyce.
Speaker 2: The next fight I had was Jack Messi and still
the performance was very not a good performances inconsistent, yeah, inconsistent,
but still the win, I mean, still a win. But
just when you look at the performance, it was just
not really up to the pie, you know what I mean.
So I started watching more questions than I employed someone
named George Lockton, who I admit through Tyson Fury. He
did his nutrition and I asked him if he could
come home and see camp but doing my nutrition for me.
And then one thing led to the next. I started
questioning him about strength conditioning, and his knowledge on strength conditioning,
recovery and nutrition changed everything that I've been doing since
linking up with him.
Speaker 3: And I find I find now that the.
Speaker 2: Working relationship I have with George Locke and Andy Lee
has made a massive difference. Us all working together and
sink and just doing everything like with togetherness, you know.
Speaker 3: But there's been a.
Speaker 2: Lot of learning and there's a lot of science behind
a lot of things that I haven't even you know
that I've just only started learning about now.
Speaker 1: So when you had the fights against Wilder and jillye Jang,
the two fights that you won most recently that were
the biggest fights that you won in a while, that
you were the underdog in both those fights as far
as I can tell, and you you thrived. You know,
it wasn't really like there was even a It wasn't
like they were controversial. I mean, you didn't get knockouts,
but you were the clear winner of both those fights.
And you're going to go into this fight with Danga
Duap problem is the underdog. You like that position because
of your success. You've had it where I think a
lot of people look at Anthony Joshua and say, well,
du Wa destroyed him. You know, he's a wrecking machine
right now. And Joseph Parker goes in this fight kind
of like not getting the kind of attention maybe that
he's been getting.
Speaker 2: Always the underdog, And you know, I appreciate the position
them and you uh we uh like plan spoilers like myself,
Andy Lee and George Locke, and they had big fights
sign up for Lolla and Joshua another fight, other fight
signed up for jan But I do I do. I
do like being the underdog, and I think we can
I can thrive off that, and I can build off that,
and I can you know the element of surprise, you know.
Speaker 1: I was wondering when you defeated uh Deontay Wilder. It
was it was well known I had reported, others had
reported that that there was a deal in place that
if Anthony Joshua won his main event that night, and
if Deontay Wilder had defeated Joseph Parker, that the fight
that so many people look forward to it for a
very long time. Although not at the same level as
it would have been had they met a few years
ago as the feeding fighters for the undisputed title, it
was still gonna be a pretty big deal. And you
ruin those plans. Were you a little bit offended maybe
that a quality championship level fighter like yourself, a former
world champion, was basically being completely overlooked by everybody, thinking
that they're just gonna walk through those opponents, you know,
and and make the fight between Wilder and Anthony Joshua.
But you were gonna have something to say about that.
Speaker 2: You always gonna have gonna say, but we'll say it quietly.
Just got about our work and keep building. And you
know what a lot because of my performances before that,
a lot of people thought I was just gonna go
and get knocked down, and then that's fine because my
performances weren't really the best. But in terms of working
with Georgia and saying working with Andy and being able.
Speaker 3: To build, build, build, I had a good feeling.
Speaker 2: Against the fight that I've done everything right, you know,
and I know Water was coming off a long layoff,
and I was sort of the I was the busier
fighter leading up to that fight, and they did have
that big fight locked in. I think they already had
contracts sign Yeah, but that's why after the fight and
if forgetting that wins just meant so much more, you know,
just leaving the family training hard, everyone's thinking you're gonna
get knocked down, and then you're able to get a
good result.
Speaker 1: Now you brought up Andy Lee a couple of times.
I have known Andy Lee since he turned professional as
a boxer himself under the great Emmanuel Stewart, who was
a dear friend of mine. I covered Andy Lee's entire career.
I love the guy and so when he linked up
with you, it made me happy because it was like
a continuation of the great Kronk legacy that was built
by Emmanuel Steward that he was like a disciple, and
here he is training Joseph Parker. So I like for
you to just try to express to me what has
Andy meant to your career. I know you mentioned about
getting your new strength and conditioning, your nutrition situation handled
with George, but talk to me a little about what
Andy has brought in terms of the in the gym,
the ex's and the O was just your mentality, the
poise that you always show. What does he meant for
your camp in your corner?
Speaker 3: You know, when you have.
Speaker 2: Someone like Andy with the experience that he has under
his belt, being a world champion himself, being around the Manusrurt,
like you said, training and that sort of group, and
then bringing the experience say he has, but also his
calm nature, you know you need someone. And also I
know we're great friends, but we're we're in the gym.
It's a different story. There's no there's no friendship. Is
it's you know, it's it's a boxer and his teacher,
and there's a lot of there's a lot of trainers
out there who are good at training, but not all
of them are teachers, you know. And there's there's a
way that Andy breaks things down that I'm able to
take in and and sort of understand. And he sort
of just stripped me back into and who worked on
the basics, and then it just built me up again.
And I feel like there was as a fighter. When
you go through all these I don't know, for years
of training, you so forget about the basics and what's
really important, and you really have to. I mean, the
basics is what you build everything off. So Andy, Andy
is a great teacher. Andy is a great friend, but
I also I think he's a master. And coming up
with a game plan and uh Win executed. It's a
great night.
Speaker 1: You were so busy after the fight with Joe Joyce.
I was looking at your box track and I counted
five fights in fourteen months, including the two victories against
Deontay Wilder and Zilli Jang, But post that you only
had the one fight in twenty twenty four and eleven
month layoff. So I'm wondering why so busy for that
period of time and then so inactive over the past
year as opposed maybe you know a little bit more,
you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I love to keep busy and I love
to keep fighting. And you know, like you said, from
the Joys fight and Soil the Jang fight, we're fighting
those four or five fights in two and twenty four.
After Jang, I thought, you know what, I've got a
good win. I'm gonna keep fighting now, I'm going to
have another two or three fights. That's what happened, and
tried to make fights, tried to try everything, ranked, promoters,
rang everyone, Can I get a fight? Can you get
a fight? And just what I couldn't get a fight?
Locked in and this was the only fight now is
the fighter they offered me? So I know I've had
a long layoff, and they can to fix fighters being
out of the ring for so long. But you know,
when I feel like I've lived, I've lived the life
of a fighter or a boxer and been focusing on strength, conditioning, nutrition.
I did want to keep busy, but it's not really
up to me. You know, I didn't really get the
opportunity to to have a fight.
Speaker 1: Well, you were you were the WBO champion back several
years ago. You know that was prior than you obviously
tried to unify with Joshua, but you haven't had I know,
you had interim title fights, but I'm talking about a
bona fide one of the major belts. This will be
the first one in a while when you fight do
way how just just the idea that you can maybe
grab one of these big belts. You got to be
just thrilled about that. I mean, because it's been.
Speaker 2: I'm thrilled and I am so excited. I'm over the
mint for this opportunity. But I know it's just the opportunity.
I haven't got the belt yet. Ye, It'll mean so
much more. It means something different winning this time because
the last time I was I think I was a
well I know I was immature. I didn't really appreciate
the position I was in, wasn't taking it seriously. Whereas
now I'm thirty three years old, married, you know, I
got five kids, and it's a different position to be in.
But just the opportunity to fight for the belt again
after all these years, right, it's going to be uh,
it's going to be a good feeling.
Speaker 1: So if you're able to do the business and take
care of Danie Duba and raise that IBF title, what
would you want to do next? A lot of people
look at it and say, well, Usik got basically stripped
or were sportsd to vacate, so it should be his.
I assume you would want to fight Husick for the
undisputed opportunity? Is that maybe you want to go after
one of the guys that you lost to a Joshua fight,
another Joyce fight, Dellian White's the other fighter that you
lost a fight to, Like what is in your mind?
Like how would you like to try to capitalize.
Speaker 3: And be able to do this?
Speaker 2: You never want to look too far ahead, but in
my mind it would be one of the IBA championship
with the World of du Bois fight Musik unification undisputed
and then avenger losses to those guys that I thought
that I've lost to. That that's for me, That's the
perfect sidari in my head.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned you know you've been doing this while
you got your thirty three years old, five kids, married,
successful heavyweight pro nearly thirteen years how many you ever
give thought how much longer you wanted to do this
because you're you're young age wise, but it's been a longer.
You've fought a lot of top guys and haven't all
been easy.
Speaker 2: Fights sometimes, But in my thirty fifth year of being
on this earth, I'm done.
Speaker 1: So that's you got to take care of this business
and maybe what two three more fights and you're.
Speaker 2: Yeah, take care of this business. I'm thirty three now,
and then once once I turned thirty five, and I'm
sometime when i'm thirty five, I'm out. I'm going to
be very thankful for the buss as a career that
I've had and still going strong.
Speaker 3: Now. I've been, like you said, I've been.
Speaker 2: In boxing for a while now and just got to
look after yourself after, you know, after all everything you've
achieved or.
Speaker 3: One a chief.
Speaker 1: So I'll just wrap up with this. Then, Joe, you
got to fight with Dubi. I mean, on any other
card in the world. That's the main event obviously, but
I wonder how do you feel like the fight goes?
How does it play out with your fight with Daniel Dubas.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've seen it in the two I
feel like I'll be too smart for him.
Speaker 3: I know I do.
Speaker 2: Boss got heavy punches, any punches and combinations and for
these bunches, for bunches of punches.
Speaker 3: But I feel like I'm going to be too smart.
Speaker 2: Movement is going to be a bit of an issue
for him, and we'll work on a good game plan
with Andy. But and also I feel like I've got
more power. You know, I'm going to be a lot heavier,
not a lot of Hey, I want to be heavy
in this fight, and I think I'm going to break
him down, break him down until he's a bit confusing then.
Speaker 3: And get him out of there.
Speaker 1: It may be a better chin, Joe. I mean not that,
not that this son Daniel, but maybe a better chin
than you have in him.
Speaker 2: Daniel's got a lots You've had of the chin himself.
There's her Goovich right hands. Joshua landed a good right
hand before he got off to himself, so he has
shown a good chin. It's just that he refused to
got dropped by a jab and also like the injury
with the Joe Joyces fight, so you just have to
break him down to the point where he can't really
say what's happening in the fight.
Speaker 1: Well, whatever happens, and if Joe I wish you the
best of luck, look forward to watching it. Thank you
very much for joining me today.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.