Joseph Parker defeated Junior Fa in their long awaited fight.
Video / Spark Sport
OPINION:
The contrast between the press calls following last night's all-New Zealand heavyweight clash couldn't have been starker: the winners talked like losers and the losers carried themselves like winners.
While a beaming Junior Fa talked about "how great I felt out there" and his team cogitated on the prospectof more doors opening to high-ranked heavyweights, the Parker camp faced the inquisition with all the joy of schoolboys facing their parents to explain away a failed NCEA exam.
Joseph Parker, who moved to 28-2 with his unanimous points win against Fa, was disappointed with his performance; trainer Kevin Barry was nonplussed by the performance; while manager David Higgins was disappointed those two were disappointed with the performance.
Which is not to say the misgivings were unjustified: reviews for the muted, strangely powerless display have been unkind. So, what was traditionally a time for celebration, for big-upping oneself, for issuing challenges to as-yet-unmade opponents, instead became a type of existential riddle for Parker: how does a man win and lose at the same time?
"Everything was clicking in training but it just wasn't the performance we wanted tonight. But a win's a win," Parker said, unconvincingly. "He came in with a game plan and it made it difficult to catch him properly."
Said Barry: "We prepared very well. There was no excuse; we had a good training camp. We knew that he'd [Fa] be game. I didn't think he'd be that game but he fought with enormous purpose and he was proud."
Questions have again been raised as to whether the Parker-Barry combination has road left to run. The day after a fight is not the time to make big calls, but there appears to be some logistical as well as performance reasons why a change might benefit both parties.
Barry's operation is based in Las Vegas, while Parker has a home and three young daughters in Auckland. In the age of the pandemic, there is no simple, inexpensive way of reconciling the tyranny of distance.
Higgins, speaking to the Herald, gave no indication that a change of trainer was on the cards, but then again he didn't rule it out.
"The fighter-trainer relationship is special so although I'm Joseph's manager and sign the contracts, it's not really a question for me," Higgins said.
"It's an adult question though, so if either party thought that [a change] would benefit them, then they'll have that adult talk. But now is not the time to be talking about it because we're taking stock."
Joseph Parker reacts after his victory over Junior Fa. Photo / Dean Purcell
That inventory will include the prospect of a fight with Dereck Chisora.
Matchroom Boxing's Eddie Hearn has already been in contact with Higgins, congratulating Duco on staging the event and Parker for winning a "scrappy" contest, and ascertaining the heavyweight's health.
Hearn is regarded as a fast mover in an industry that is famous for getting bogged down in reams of fine print.
There could be an announcement on a "blockbuster" (use the term loosely) May fight between Parker, who has one fight left on his current Matchroom deal, and Chisora by the end of the week.
Given the vastly different stages of Covid recovery between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the fight would make more sense in New Zealand in front of a large crowd, but Higgins can't see it, getting an early shot in on the colourful Brit.
"I bet if we offered Chisora double the money to come here and fight, he'd still choose to stay home. That's the difference, Joseph will travel anywhere to fight," Higgins jabbed.
"Chisora might have looked at that fight and thought, 'I'll have that,' but that would be a mistake.
"Styles make fights and Chisora's style of lunging forward has more chance of turning it into a proper dust-up, rather than what we saw in the Fa fight."
Higgins likes his fighter's chances of winning a dust-up.
For Parker's sake, you hope that "a win's a win" will regain its meaning by then.
