Joseph Parker's one area of vulnerability - a susceptibility to the overhand right - is likely to be tested to the fullest in his next fight by Bowie Tupou.
Tupou, a Tongan Australian of considerable size and strength, is said to have gone from 140kg to a little over 120kgin preparation for the fight in Invercargill on August 1, but in training with the renowned Jeff Fenech he is unlikely to have lost any of his power.
The overhand right happens to be his favourite punch - he knocked over American Bryant Jennings with it - and Parker has been tagged by it by Marcelo Luiz Nascimento, Sherman Williams, and even Yakup Saglam, whom he knocked out in the second round of his last fight in Palmerston North last month.
Trainer Kevin Barry said: "It's something that I'm genuinely concerned about. It's been an Achilles heel for us for a while now and it's something we have religiously made part of our training programme since I've been working with Joe.
"We've got the chin down but he still likes to drop the left hand. It's something he's comfortable with but it's something that does worry me. I know he has a very good chin but I don't want his chin to be tested. Because of the fact he does drop his left hand we have worked on three or four ways of catching the overhand right... it's a punch that Joe has been hit by. Nascimento hit him with a right hand, Sherman Williams hit him with a couple of overhands, even in the last fight against Saglam - Saglam threw a right hand that I thought was coming that slow it wouldn't hit me, but it got to Joe."
Parker, ranked eighth in the world to Tupou's 13th, said: "It's a bad habit I have. On this camp I've worked on tucking my chin into my shoulder, so if he does throw the overhand right hopefully people can see I've improved and can catch it."
Billed by promoters Duco as the highest ranking heavyweight fight to have taken place in New Zealand, the fight is proving extremely popular to the people of Southland, just as Palmerston North responded to Parker last time out.
The 23-year-old Parker, who has a 14-0 professional record, should be too fast and fit for the 32-year-old Tupou, who has a 25-3 record, provided he commits to a game plan of keeping the heavier man on the outside.
"It's important that we fight a smart fight," Barry said. "We can't get careless, we must stay patient and he must fight him on the outside because if Joe keeps him there I don't think Tupou can hit him."
