In the end, indeed Joseph Parker turned out to be little. He seemed quite scared in the ring, as a result of which he could not find the distance that suited him and enter his opponent's game. Anthony Joshua on a mediocre night for him, won "professionally" without doing much and did not risk at any point in the fight.
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For Parker to have hopes, he would have to implement a tactic, as I mentioned above, to be special. Pulling the tallest opponent close to him by moving backwards, who would logically expect a more aggressive tactic, did not seem like a bad idea to me. It was, however, poorly executed. He had to counter Joshua (who is not famous for footwork) for moving forward with great determination, which he did not show us at any point. Instead, he first stood up and then made some predictable attacks that started with a left-hand direct (Jab) giving him all the time to hit and the space to move away.
Joshua on the other hand took the distance that suited him and held it relatively easily until the end. In his previous fight with Takam he had more difficulty in this area, because he was an opponent he really wanted to "break" the distance and hit a fight that stopped for no reason at 10ο round. Joshua is not an athlete who will leave the game in which he feels safe risking unnecessary blows and doing the right thing. The blow he received at 6ο round did not seem serious to hurt him and he did not need a break from the referee to cope.
The referee, who was talked about a lot, was really bad. He did not, however, wrong Parker, but the fight as a whole and as much spectacle it could finally offer us. The way he refereed was like an amateur game, since he was constantly stopping his flow. This does not mean, however, that he wronged Parker, who did more wrong to himself. When you really want to work closely, the moment your opponent hugs you make sure you have both hands on your jaw looking active. On the contrary, most of the time he bent down or went down and to the right of Joshua's left hand, who would logically hug him there due to tactics but also common sense.Many times, however, he did not need that either because he hugged himself.
It was, therefore, a clear victory for Joshua even if it did not impress. However, I think that in the last games we start to see the boxing "ceiling" of this particular athlete. I do not know if he is a champion due to talent or due to lack of more competition in the big category and of course supernatural qualifications. In the event of a fight with Wilder, Povetkin or even the crazy gypsy Tyson Fury (he wants a couple of games for the latter to be competitive) things would be quite difficult and I doubt he would make it three to three.I was impressed that in a joint interview before the match and in a question asked by the presenter, he said that "I can not afford to lose because many people rely on me". This shows a lack of thirst and personal motivation.
In closing, I can say that we did not see a fight worthy of our expectations, but this is boxing. Two athletes can neutralize each other to such an extent that it spoils the spectacle. In recent years we may have become addicted and identified with the spectacle of violence, but this only concerns passers-by and not those who have understood and really love it. After all, as the Austrian musician Arnold Schoenborg had said "If it is art, it is not for everyone and if it is for everyone, it is not art."
Boxing is an art and not for everyone!
Vassilis Oikonomou
