Joseph Parker says his goal has always been to fight for the world title one day. Photo / Dean Purcell
Joseph Parker says his goal has always been to fight for the world title one day. Photo / Dean Purcell
Joseph Parker says he’s heading in the right direction for his dream — but it’s often a bit strange
These are exciting times for Joseph Parker. He has high-profile friends — All Blacks and Warriors are among his 17,600 Twitter followers and he regularly receives welcome messages of support from the likes of Jerome Kaino, Sonny Bill Williams, Liam Messam and Manu Vatuvei.
He travels easily between Las Vegas and Auckland, both home to him now. The 23-year-old is as comfortable in the world of sponsorship and self promotion as he is in the ring.
And he also treats the increasing numbers of hangers-on, a disparate group attracted to the brutality and glamour of boxing like no other sport, with politeness and respect. For him it is the way he was brought up.
If he is in any danger of getting ahead of himself his core group of five mates can easily take him down a peg or two — them or mum Sala or dad Dempsey, his parents living in the same Mangere East home he grew up in, where they've lived in for 28 years.
"It feels weird," Parker says of the attention he gets in the street or after his fights. He has won all 12 of his professional bouts and gets in the ring again on home territory next Thursday when he takes on American Jason Pettaway in a fight in Manukau sponsored by Burger King.
"Fame, I guess you could call it that, or being popular, that never crosses my mind. People ask for autographs and I wonder why before realising, 'oh that's right, I'm doing well in boxing'.
Parker knocked out Irineu Beato Costa Junior during the Fight for Life at Claudelands Event Centre on Dec 6 last year in Hamilton. Photo / Getty Images
"I have the same boys now that I had in the beginning when I wasn't doing well, when I wasn't famous.
"We know who is trying to hang on and trying to get into the picture now. I know and my team know the people who were there in the beginning. Knowing that is important."
Parker's younger brother, John, is one of the five. The others are Jarom Fitisemanu, Ravi Kumar, George Taukolo and Pieter T, all young men he has known from his days growing up in South Auckland, and all, he says, doing well in their own way.
Parker is clearly doing well. He has fulfilled his dream of wanting to provide for himself, as well as his parents. They still work but Parker is helping with their mortgage. Financially, he considers himself "doing well. I'm happy with where I'm at".
He is satisfied, yet driven to succeed. He is relaxed outside the ring but an intense and precise figure inside it — for proof look up his last fight in Hamilton in December, a brutal fourth-round knockout of Brazilian Irineu Beato Costa Junior.
A physically powerful but genial figure who smiles easily, Parker is rarely flustered.
"Things that usually piss people off don't really piss me off," he says. "Things happen. You just have to accept it and move on. I get that from my dad. He's a real chilled character."
Cool all the time, it seems, apart from when the red mist descended in his fight against Samoan Afa Tatupu two years ago. "That was a fight when I got a little ticked off. Everyone said I couldn't take a punch and all that, so when he hit me I was like, 'I'm going to come back and give it to you'.
"I got a big lesson from that ... I just learned that you can't lose it in the ring. I felt more tired in that fight than in other fights because I just lost the plot."
American boxer Jason Pettaway. Photo / Andrew Warner
That's why his regime before each fight is the same, why he wants his dressing room to be a fun place.
"When you're in the ring you're ready to do your thing, but in a relaxed state."
Parker adds of his dream: "When I was growing up I always wanted to do well in boxing, I wanted to look after my parents and I wanted to look after myself. My goal always was 'Man, one day I want to fight for the world title'.
"Living in Vegas, I never thought that would happen. I never thought I would be ranked in the world.
"But my goal was always to fight for the heavyweight title, to make New Zealand and Samoa proud.
"Even though I'm ranked 9 and 10 in the WBO and WBA, it's still a long way off, but I'm heading in the right direction."
Fight night
• What: Joseph Parker v Jason Pettaway. • Where: Vodafone Events Centre, Manukau. • When: Thursday. Doors open 6pm. • On TV: Pay per view on Sky Arena.
