No one can say New Zealand heavyweight boxing prospect Joseph Parker is unprepared for his much-anticipated fight with South Africa's Francois Botha on Thursday.

Ardie Hickey has been battling a brain tumour, and boxer Bubba Tuigamala is getting in the ring to support that fight.

Dean Lonergan, the promoter of a boxing match between two dwarves, insists it's a serious fight and can't see why anyone would object.

Promoters are expecting anger after scheduling a bout between two dwarfs as the warm up to a heavyweight boxing match between Joseph Parker and Francois "White Buffalo" Botha next month.

"Kevin Barry has been telling me to fight like a big man and that's what I did."

It was Los Angeles, almost 30 years ago. The chairs were flying through the air. So too the drinks containers. And the cussing. The air was blue. And angry red.

On the wall of Kevin Barry's gym in Rich Moriarty's house is a copy of a cheque made out by Don King to Mike Tyson.

A boxer lined up to take on rising Kiwi heavyweight Joseph Parker is wanted by police in New Zealand - but the fight's promoter says the bout will go on.

All three Australian oval ball codes are caught up in peptide scandals, and the use of human growth hormone variants is said to be rife in boxing.

On Monday I had lunch with a South African boxer who is known as the White Buffalo and what he had for lunch was buffalo.

Joseph Parker Ten years after he split with David Tua in acrimonious circumstances that resulted in a multimillion-dollar legal scrap, Kevin Barry is back working with New Zealand's top heavyweight boxing prospect.

Francois Botha has been in the sport too long to be unduly concerned about the Sonny Bill Williams' fight debacle in February.

Relatives and hometown supporters of boxing's first black heavyweight champion are turning to YouTube to convince President Barack Obama to posthumously pardon him of a 1913 conviction for accompanying a white woman across state lines.