Fast emerging New Zealand heavyweight Joseph Parker should experience no lasting difficulties after the bad eye cut sustained in his fight with Afa Tatupu last month.
His trainer Kevin Barry said from Las Vegas that the cut - suffered after a head clash - had healed well.
"I took Joseph to my plastic surgeon and he told us that the eye looks fantastic. The cut is well above the orbital bone and he doubts that a fighter would be able to open it with a punch - though another head clash might be another story," said Barry.
The cut occurred when Parker, a quick-hands boxer with a promising future, ditched his game plan and traded blows with Tatupu. The plan had been for the elegant Parker to stay on the outside, picking off the puncher with speed, movement and ringcraft. However, Parker forgot the plot in the heat of the moment and was caught when Tatupu led with his head during an exchange.
A grumpy Barry made his feelings clear at the time - cuts can affect a fighter's career, especially when opponents work on it during a bout, letting blood flow and getting the fight stopped. Kiwi heavyweight Shane Cameron suffered from cuts for a time and there have been many boxers whose careers have been damaged by cuts. They include British heavyweight Henry Cooper, famed for being one of the few who knocked down the great Muhammad Ali but who was beaten in both their bouts by Ali opening up a Cooper cut.
