Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2016-05-21, pretty good fight between Joseph Parker and Carlos Takam: it gets three stars.The undefeated Joseph Parker entered this fight with a perfect boxing record of 18-0-0 (16 KOs=89%) and he is ranked as the No.12 heavyweight in the world. He has already fought once in 2016 beating Jason Bergman (=Parker vs Bergman).
His opponent, Carlos Takam, has a record of 33-2-1 (25 KOs=76%) and he entered as the No.26 in the same weight class. He suffered his last loss when he faced Alexander Povetkin in 2014 (=Povetkin vs Takam), since then he has won three bouts defeating George Arias in his last one. Parker vs Takam, IBF World title eliminator, is the main event of the evening. Watch the video and rate this fight!
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Date: 2016-05-21
Where: Vodafone Events Centre, Manukau City, New Zealand
Division: heavyweight (over 200 lbs, 90.7 kg)
Parker’s previous fight: Joseph Parker vs Jason Bergman
Parker’s next fight: Joseph Parker vs Solomon Haumono
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Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Good fight with slow pace in the first part but gaining action in the second half. It shown a faster boxer in Parker who has also a very good jab but he didn’t use it much in the middle part as really required since it is one of his best tools. The best round was # 8 were Parker almost exhausted his tank connecting very good punches but receiving also very strong ones. Both fighters shown to have an excellent chin. i was expecting Takam taking the punching lead in round 9 but he wasn’t able to probably because was very tire too. Almost no body punches connected in this fight from any side. This is a good win for Parker since Takam was a though adversary. However, if this fight opened the possibility for Parker to fight Joshua I will say better to improve his defensive capabilities otherwise he would be an easy prey for Joshua. Anyhow, his chances to beat Joshua in my opinion are very low for him.
Completely agree, Tango. Parker needs more Takam-level opposition before he does anything else. And he needs to quickly improve or his progress is going to stop at this level. He got hit flush a lot tonight — such wins are costly across a career and you don’t want many of them.
We’ll know more over the next few fights. I’m interested in his career but my expectations are tempered now.
Parker didn’t seem to be able to hurt his opponent unlike all the other soup cans he’s faced before. It made all the difference, because he struggled from the middle rounds until the end of the fight. I’ma bit disappointed. He’s not ready for a a world title fight and Joshua will probably crush him.
But the fight itself was a very good one.
One of the most entertaining HW fights in recent months, and it’s because of what you say, Olivier. Parker took a step up, couldn’t push around a solid fighter and had to out-hustle and survive the durable, experienced Takam. That made it a pitched battle where even though he was winning rounds, Parker looked vulnerable down to the last second.
Positively, though, Parker showed he has a chin and heart. He went to war and came out OK. I enjoyed seeing him go for broke in the 8th round with over two dozen punches in that flurry. Risky, yet he went for it (and came up short).
He’s not nearly a world-beater, and if I were his team, I’d avoid the AJ fight for another half a year or more. Maybe longer. The soup can diet wasn’t so good for his teeth. ;-)
In fact I would take Dillian Whyte to beat Parker today.
Good analysis! Funny, I also had a thought for Whyte after the fight? Who’s best: Takam or Whyte? I would bet on Takam. More experienced, slicker. So, to me, it seems that Parker had a tougher eliminator fight than Joshua. But since styles make the fights, would Whyte be able to beat Parker? Unlike you, I’m not so sure. Guess we just found Parker’s next opponent!
Great, let’s see them fight! I’ll pick Whyte solely because Takam landed often, and Whyte had the power to stagger Joshua. As you say, though, Takam’s slicker…
I would like to see Parker face someone like Povetkin before facing Joshua.
This showing was not world class. As pointed out below, it showed a number of shortcomings in his defence ( like turning into some good right hands from Takam) He also failed to use his reach and to protect himself from break off fron clitches. His conditioning also needs to be improved, at twenty four against a thirty five year old, when both were running out of puff, it shows that his aerobic training needs to be addresses. He is still young and is not a Mike Tyson, he has intelligence and his skill set will improve with exposure. Taken was a very genuine opponent and it looks like an early retirement from the career of boxing for him. Interesting to see the look on Barry’s face- he can now see some real money for his efforts, I hope he continues on a slow build up and does not throw Parker to the wolves for the sake of a few dollars.