“I’m the NZ champion at 80kg and that weight class suits me a lot better.”
His first bout was against Australian Raam Didumo. Now living in Auckland and fighting out of City Kickboxing, Didumo is considered one of the rising young talents.
The bout went the three three-minute rounds and the judges scored it unanimous in Parkes’s favour. This put him into the semifinal against Titus Proctor, a 19-year-old New Zealander.
Proctor won on a TKO (technical knockout) when the referee stopped the fight in the second round after Parkes took a huge bodyshot.
Proctor beat Dion Wilson in the final to become the super lightweight champion and King in the Ring.
Parkes said he found that in training for big fights it was extremely hard to balance his high-performance sport with his building business.
“It’s the main reason I only ever get four weeks to prepare for these huge fights,” he said.
“It’s always going to be difficult to hang with the best fighters in New Zealand but we still manage to foot it with the best in the country.”
The 80kg weight class is where he feels more comfortable.
“My body just responds better as I don’t have to starve as much and can train most of the time with energy and power.
“To get to 75kg I’m constantly in a calorie deficit and have a lack of energy during training . . . starving and yet performing in physically brutal training as if I’m on the best nutrition known to man.
“People have no idea what fighters go through at a high level.”
On whether he would enter the weight class again he said: “No, I don’t think I’ll go back down to 75kg any time soon.
“The body is fine after the weekend, just the standard bit of swelling on the ankles and shin, but nothing out of the ordinary.”
He stressed the importance of preparation. He wanted to express his appreciation of coaches Dan Spears, Taka Mackey and Melissa Mackey.
“And a special thank you to my training partners — Hori Whakatope, Chris Lee and Shaye Brock — who helped me a lot during the camp.”
