Boxing: Joseph Parker ready for biggest test yet

Kali Meehan and Joseph Parker face off before their big fight. Photo / Dean Purcell

Joseph Parker has spent the past seven weeks practicing keeping his left hand up high in preparation for Thursday's fight against powerful veteran right-hander Kali Meehan.

Bunkered down in his Las Vegas camp with trainer Kevin Barry, Parker regularly sparred with 1.91m training partner Izu Ugonoh, in the hope of learning how to avoid and negate Meehan's 13cm reach advantage.

"This is a big challenge for me because of the experience that Kali brings, his height, his reach, and the training camp has been awesome," said Parker.

"With (Ugonoh) his height and reach, he helped me to practice how to avoid getting hit by someone with long arms, and trying to get in there and land the punches I need to land to win the fight.

"Kevin was getting him to throw a lot of punches similar to Kali, so it's definitely helped me to keep my left hand up. Hopefully come fight night it doesn't drop again like in the past and I can protect myself."

Parker is well aware of Meehan's power and his ability to go the distance, and Barry believes his young charge is ready to be tested, with some similarly big and powerful fighters looming ahead.

"We have a lot of big guys coming up for Joe to fight as he moves forward and keeps developing and maturing," said Barry.

"Kali's a big guy and it's the sort of the fight that three years into his professional career, is the right fight for Joseph to have now.

"You only have to look at the knockout percentages of Kali Meehan throughout his career and you know he punches like a heavyweight and he has a tremendous right hand that we have a lot of respect for.

"So it's a fight that Joe's got to follow the game plan. And everything he's shown me, I'm very positive that he will follow the game plan."

While Parker has been working hard to be ready for a long night in the office, he acknowledged both he and his opponent have the ability to end the bout quickly.

"We train for 12 rounds but the boxing game is funny and anything can happen," he said.

"One punch can change anything. We know that Kali's got power. I've got power, so it's just about who fights the smartest."

The 23-year-old shrugged off Meehan's recent comments that his son and training partner, Willis, packed a harder punch, saying it was just a part of the pre-fight hype.

"It's all part of the game. I'm sure Willis does have power because, of course, every heavyweight has power.

"It's a matter of landing the punches. I respect what he says, and that's his opinion, but after the fight we'll see if thinks I have power or not."