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Joseph Parker and the UK’s Fury-ous ‘hub of NZ boxing’

With fellow Kiwis David Nyika and Sonny Bill Williams training alongside him, the former heavyweight champion is enjoying a career renaissance on the British coast. By

Sam Wilson.

When New Zealand’s borders finally reopen, the sleepy English seaside town of Morecambe is unlikely to be high on many Kiwi travellers’ bucket lists.

Just over an hour’s drive from the bright lights of Manchester, this down-at-heel, working-class enclave on the Lancashire coast has fallen on hard times since its 1950s and 1960s heyday, when the rise of cheap foreign holidays lured British holidaymakers overseas.

But one larger-than-life resident has helped put this unfashionable town back on the map – and turned it into ‘‘the New Zealand hub for boxing’’.

Heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury has called Morecambe home since 2008, and owns a gym at the local football club’s Mazuma Stadium.

It is here where his good friend and fellow fighter Joseph Parker has trained since teaming up with Fury’s second cousin, Andy Lee, last year in the wake of his split from Kevin Barry.

Parker has also been joined by Olympic bronze medallist David Nyika and, more recently, Sonny Bill Williams, who is busy preparing for a fight with AFL hardman Barry Hall in Sydney on March 23, making

Morecambe an unlikely hotbed for Kiwi pugilists.

‘‘It’s great to have him [Williams] and David Nyika here, we’re all here!,’’ Parker joked to the Sunday Star-Times. ‘‘Tyson said the other day, ‘this is the New Zealand hub for boxing’.’’

Parker and Williams go back a long way (‘‘I’ve known Sonny since 2011 or 2012, and he’s always looked out for me’’) and the pair share a strong bond.

He has been impressed with the cross-code star’s commitment to his craft, and said he and Fury had been giving the former All Black and Kiwis enforcer some pointers in the gym.

‘‘The great thing about Tyson is he shares his knowledge, shares what he knows about boxing and encourages you to try this, and try that,’’ Parker said.

‘‘When everyone is in the gym, putting in the work, you look around and you see David, you see Tyson, you see [British featherweight] Isaac Lowe. It’s just a great environment to be in because everyone’s pushing, everyone’s working hard, encouraging each other, and we’re all going through the same thing.’’

Just over a month has passed since Parker was last in a boxing ring, dishing out a beating to Derek Chisora in their one-sided rematch before an electric Manchester Arena.

In one of the finest displays of his 32-fight career, the former WBO champion dropped Chisora three times and inflicted sustained punishment on the British veteran to claim a unanimous decision that earned plaudits around the world.

So it’s no surprise that Parker has a spring in his step at the beginning of a pivotal year that could see him land a second shot at world honours.

‘‘It was obviously a better performance than the first fight [a contentious split decision win last May],’’ a modest Parker reflected to the Sunday StarTimes. ‘‘I came out more aggressive, didn’t move around as much, and landed some good shots. So I was pretty happy with the performance.’’

Parker was also ‘‘proud that people found the fight to be exciting’’ and put his more aggressive, front-foot style down to the work he’d been doing in the gym with Lee, the Irishman who has helped him rediscover his love for the sport after plateauing somewhat under Barry.

It was only Parker’s second outing with Lee in his corner, and he is adamant there is plenty more improvement to come as he looks to reclaim a portion of the heavyweight crown.

‘‘We said before the fight it takes a while to learn and to adjust and adapt to a different style,’’ Parker said of their blossoming relationship.

‘‘With more and more time, we can improve on that last performance. There’s still a lot to work on in terms of being more aggressive and not letting them [opponents] off the hook.’’

Nonetheless, Parker considers that impressive victory over the ‘‘very tough’’ Chisora his best since capturing the WBO title against Andy Ruiz Jr in 2016, and there’s no doubt it has injected some much-needed momentum into the 30-year-old’s career.

But that momentum has been stalled by an elbow injury, which forced him to decline a world title eliminator against unbeaten Croatian Filip Hrgovic for a shot at Oleksandr Usyk’s IBF crown.

The widely avoided Hrgovic (14-0, 12 KOs) did not take too kindly to that snub, saying he was ‘‘really pissed off’’ with Parker and his team while questioning the Kiwi’s fighting spirit.

As expected, Parker took those jibes in his stride and said that if he’d been fully fit and Hrgovic’s camp had tabled a serious offer, he would have signed on the dotted line.

‘‘My arm wasn’t fully recovered, but it’s not a bad injury, it’s just inflammation and muscles and tendons being sore. Also, the offer wasn’t even close to being a good offer,’’ he explained, saying he had returned to training and even sparred Fury a few days ago.

‘‘It’s a great opportunity to fight in an eliminator but I think it has to make sense on all fronts. The eliminator has to make sense financially, as camps do get expensive, and I also have to be at 100 per cent.

‘‘I think I’ve had a lot of fights where I wasn’t 100 per cent with how I felt but I still took the fight and didn’t put on great performances. So at this stage, everything has to add up and make sense.’’

Parker and Hrgovic fought each other in the amateurs (‘‘he beat me by two or three points’’) so there is a bit of history between them, but without a ‘‘proper deal’’ the Aucklander would prefer to look elsewhere for an opponent, with rematches against Ruiz Jr and Dillian Whyte holding far more appeal.

‘‘It would be great to have a rematch with Andy Ruiz because it was a close fight, and he’s done a lot since then,’’ Parker said.

‘‘I’ve just had a good win recently and I think it would be a great fight – a tough fight, but I’d like to have a rematch so that I can really show that I won the first fight and it wasn’t a fluke.

‘‘Another good opponent would be Dillian Whyte. If he doesn’t fight [his WBC mandatory] Tyson Fury, I’d love to have the chance to fight him again.’’

A sequel with Whyte – to whom he lost via controversial

‘We’ve got a good following and good support [in Britain] . . . we’ve developed our own fanbase of supporters over here.’ JOSEPH PARKER

split decision back in 2018 – is just one reason why Parker favours re-signing with British promoter Matchroom, as he enters crucial talks over his fighting future after completing a lucrative three-fight deal with the Eddie Hearn-led outfit.

Parker said Matchroom were the ‘‘best in the business’’ and had put on ‘‘some great shows’’. Crucially, they also have a lot of heavyweights on their books.

‘‘David [Higgins], my manager, is working on it at the moment,’’ Parker said of the ongoing negotiations.

‘‘Matchroom has been very good to us, it would be great to sign on with them.

‘‘We’ve got a good following and good support [in Britain]. I think every time we’ve been here in the UK we’ve topped the bill and we’ve developed our own fanbase of supporters over here.’’

Parker has certainly become a popular figure in the UK since basing himself in Morecambe, and he feels more settled in the area, particularly now that his wife and three children are with him.

Being in a new country with a new team has helped rekindle his fire for the sport (‘‘I just have this passion to continue training and improving’’), but he would love to return to New Zealand soon – if only he could secure an MIQ spot.

The delay in reopening the border due to emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has left Parker and his family stranded, unsure when they next will be able to return home.

‘‘We can’t get back. We’re having the same issues where there’s no rooms available to book or MIQ spots, so we have to stay here,’’ he said.

‘‘There’s a lot of people in the same position that are stuck abroad. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to get back but in the meantime I’m just going to stay here and keep training.’’

WORLD

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2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

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