Joseph Parker and Junior Fa reveal details of their 'fight of the century' scheduled for 11 December. Video / Will Trafford
There was so much talk of collaboration and cooperation at the announcement of the long-awaited Joseph Parker versus Junior Fa fight that it was easy to forget this will all be resolved by two strong men trying to administer concussive injuries to each other.
Yes, the fight, which was firstmentioned in dispatches when Covid-19 was just a twinkle in the eye of a lonely chiroptera, is on.
It was officially brought to life in one of those gaudily choreographed announcements that seem to be the last preserve of the fight game.
Everyone who needed to be was there, even those who couldn't be. At the top table were the two fighters and their managers David Higgins and Mark Keddell. At the lectern there was Scotty Stevenson.
There were the sponsors, led by the Chow brothers John, who spoke, and Michael, who didn't. The Chows make an interesting Google search term, but they didn't offer anything to their canon here beyond a perfunctory "we love fighting".
New Zealand Tongan Heavyweight boxer Junior Fa. Photo / Photosport
There were the broadcasters, the media partners and the usual hanger-onners that fall under the umbrella term "camp" – as in, he's part of the Parker camp.
There were also about 100 chairs – spaced a couple of feet apart – which seemed and proved to be wildly optimistic. You can rent a lot of things online in a time of pandemic, but not a crowd.
The sharpest contributions came via the screen. Eddie Hearn, Parker's promoter who has ceded those rights back to Duco for this fight, was patched in from somewhere comfortable. Sporting a well-groomed salt-and-pepper beard and sounding appropriately authoritative, Hearn outlined what was at stake.
"What a fight," he said, "this is about the pride of the country".
New Zealand Samoan Heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker. Photo / Photosport
It's also all about positioning yourself in the heavyweight stakes. Parker had everything to lose, Hearn said at one point, but a big win in December would "put him in position to fight for world titles".
Which would, it seems churlish to mention, also give Parker everything to win.
Hearn gave Fa "massive props" for taking this fight at this stage of his career. He has everything to gain. Unless he loses of course, whereby a nice cheque would be the sum total of things he had gained.
Lou DiBella, a fast-talking New Yorker, appeared on screen holding THE pen the deal was signed with, an artefact that is surely destined to be housed in a temperature-controlled glass case in Te Papa.
"New Zealand deserves it," he said.
(In the interests of accuracy, he was probably talking about the fight, not the pen by this stage, though I cannot say for sure because I was busy Googling "world's most expensive writing implements".)
"It's nice in these strange times to be involved in a big event," he continued, which was uncanny because at every boxing press circus I've been to I've thought, "it's nice in these big times to be involved in a strange event".
General view as Eddie Hearn talks to the media at the Joseph Parker and Junior Fa face boxing press conference confiming the heavyweight boxing match. Photo / Photosport.
And it was nice. Deep down, maybe too nice.
These fighters have history but as the uncommonly nice Fa and always hospitable Parker pointed out, it's essentially meaningless.
Those four, evenly split amateur bouts were from a different era – close to a different sport. The professional game is different. It's not always nice and that has to be the next evolution of this promotion.
When David Tua and Shane Cameron met in 2009 in the previous incarnation of the Fight of the Century, the former was 49-3-1 but at 36 and coming off a two-year hiatus, his best days were well behind him. The 31-year-old Cameron was 23-1 and was billed as a Great White Hope, though the validity of his record was undermined somewhat by the quality of his opponents.
In contrast, the 27-2 Parker is a former world champion – albeit the least prestigious of the four sanctioned belts – in the prime years of his career, while Fa is unbeaten.
What is missing from the upcoming fight at this stage is an antagonism; a frisson. The lead-up to the Tua-Cameron showdown was contentious and at times bizarre.
There was the sense that Cameron's camp was talking their fighter into a hiding – one that was summarily executed in Hamilton in front of a crowd lusting for blood.
This has the potential to be a better fight and a more technical fight. Certainly, in terms of their respective careers, it is a far more meaningful fight than Tua-Cameron.
As an opening gambit, this was all lights, no heat.
No worries. We've got until December to get to the Fight of the Century in association with Stonewood Homes.
