Rugby: Super powers reunite

Joseph Parker and Rene Ranger managed a quick catch-up at Kensington Park. Photo / John Stone

Rene Ranger and Joseph Parker have not caught up since the Fight for Life, so it's no wonder the pair were chuffed to be reunited after Ranger's Taniwha squad finished training at Kensington Park.

Parker remembers meeting Ranger on fight night in December, saying he was a classic Northlander with his "tough" and "cool" character.

"My first time meeting him was Fight for Life," Parker said, adding that he had been following Ranger's progress with the Blues. "He's a cool guy, man, he's pretty tough."

While Parker's trip to Northland was his first, he may now have a reason to come north again before Ranger heads to France after the ITM Cup season.

Parker was in Whangarei on Tuesday with his trainer, Kevin Barry, who was making his first trip to Northland in many years, to make contact with the region ahead of his New Zealand National Boxing Federation title bout against old friend Afa Tatupu on October 10 at Auckland's Trusts Arena.

When asked if the plan was to put Tatupu to sleep just as Parker did to Francois Botha in June, the answer was simple. Yes.

"The aim is to get the title," Parker said. Barry quickly added that it was not going to be a case to mucking around during the 10-round fight just to test out Parker's newly-applauded boxing ability.

"Not just win, we want to win well," Barry explained. "When you train as hard as Joseph, I said to him 'you've got to improve' every time he comes back to New Zealand and he's got to show them [the public] something else.

"What he's showing me in training is so much more than he did before the Botha fight, so we're looking to come back and show some of those talents. He's got so many more weapons now.

"He makes his money knocking people out and, the more he does, the bigger star he's going to be. The last thing we want to be doing is going unnecessary rounds. But, you've got to prepare yourself, for this fight, to go 10 rounds and if the [knock out] opening presents itself he knows how to take that."

Barry noted that while Parker's name had quickly become a household name, the jury was still out on whether he could go the distance in a fight.

"[The Tatupu fight] is a good test because it's the first time Joseph has gone 10 rounds, and we know Afa [Tatupu] can because he did 10 hard rounds in his last fight.

"The Botha fight was the first time Joseph had done eight rounds, and the jury is still out as to whether Joseph can even go eight rounds because his longest fight before that was three-and-a-bit [rounds] in a professional fight."

Whangarei Boxing Alley coach Tim Bowman has had dealings with the New Zealand heavyweight over the years and recently toured to Tahiti with one of Parker's former gym-mates.

The Northern Advocate asked via its Facebook page if readers had questions for Parker, with one person asking if Parker had plans of relocating to the United States in order to achieve more fighting experience against higher level opponents.

Parker's response was: "[Fighters in Vegas are] way higher [experience wise], that's why we're having our camps there. New Zealand will always be my home and my family is here, but I have to spend time in Vegas where Kevin [Barry] is because you cant get the sparring partners you can in the US here.

"Eventually I will take fights there."