Joseph Parker's year ticks all the boxers

Team Parker in victorious mood after knocking out Daniel Martz in Hamilton. Photo / photosport.co.nz

If Joseph Parker's performance in the ring was encapsulated by one punch, the efforts of his team were captured by one theme: 2016.

That was how trainer Kevin Barry signed off his post-fight spiel to the media, after watching his young charge seize a first-round TKO boxing win over Daniel Martz in Hamilton on Saturday night.

And, even with the rhetoric removed, it remained clear that Parker's measured path to the top could take a giant leap forward in the next 12 months.

It will be a year marked by Sunday afternoon fights, battles with top 10 opponents and, Barry and promoter Dean Lonergan insisted, one culminating with a mandatory challenger's position in one of boxing's sanctioning bodies.

World title shots hardly materialise overnight, of course. The team has a demanding plan in place and there are plenty of boxes still to tick but, if Parker continues his dominance in the ring, there's little reason to doubt the feasibility of that target.

The 23-year-old's convincing win saw his ranking creep up to No4 in the WBO, alongside 10th-place ratings in the IBF and WBC and leaving Parker in line to find a true test after waltzing through a 17-fight professional career.

Another journeyman will be next, in Samoa on January 23, but like Martz's 2m frame, American Jason Bergman possesses a quality Parker has yet to encounter: a southpaw stance.

Barry promises the big boys are coming. "We have a number of top 10 fighters who we're negotiating with now and are going to put in front of Joseph," the trainer said. "We stood here last year and said what our goal was for this year: to be ranked by all the sanctioning bodies and in the top five by one.

"We've achieved that goal, and our goal for next year is to manoeuvre him and improve the skills of Joe to get him ready to win a mandatory position next year and put him in line for a world title shot."

While that will eventually mean a move offshore, Lonergan remains committed to Parker fighting in front of his home fans for the foreseeable future. Rather than heading to the US, the promoters plan to increase Parker's accessibility to America by staging fights on Sunday afternoons in New Zealand, perfect for primetime Stateside television.

Parker will also continue with the relentless calendar he has kept throughout his career to date, with as many as six bouts next year. But that frequency may change if a match is made with enough importance to preclude a short preparation.

With the heavyweight division last weekend turned on its head by Tyson Fury, Lonergan is still waiting to assess the fallout from that result.

But he is certain of one thing -- some "magnificent opportunities" await Parker next year.

"Every now and then, we're going to take a fight that's really going to move us through the rankings," he said. "Joseph's really come on under Kevin's tutelage and the hard work he's put in and I just can't wait for the next 12 months. Because we've been talking about this for some time and it's all coming together very fast."