Tony Veitch: Higgins pulls off big deals

WBO Champion of the World and New Zealand heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker with promoter David Higgins during a press conference in Auckland in November. Photo / Photosport

Opinion

The strange and bizarre world of boxing is one of those things most of us won't ever fully understand.

There's the staged fights, strange weigh-ins, manipulated results and promoters who make the WWE look reputable.

Now we're in a holding pattern around a unification bout between England's Anthony Joshua and our own Joe Parker.

His Duco management team have literally taken the fight to Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn.

But here's the issue for Duco — boxing has been soured for many sporting fans by dodgy results and perceived corruption.

It doesn't help that Higgins and Co often come across as loose and sometimes even amateurish in a sport where dollars speak loudest.

I know in media circles that Duco are not popular, to the point where I wonder if Parker suffers as a result.

Higgins is different — but he is also a deal maker.

Remember the David Tua-Shane Cameron fight? Just as quickly as Tua walked away with the spoils after his second-round knockout, so did Higgins, when some people thought he'd take a financial bath.

If Higgins gets this fight with Joshua over the line — and many suspect he will — that achievement cannot be understated. It would be a massive sporting occasion for this country. Tua v Lennox Lewis stopped a nation and this would do the same.

Is Parker ready or even capable of going toe-to-toe with Joshua?

I don't know, and while I don't always understand or agree with Duco's methods, you cannot deny they take care of Parker.

He's a wealthy young man. His winnings are in a trust he has total control over. Higgins and Dean Lonergan are rumoured to have invested $2 million into kick-starting Parker's professional boxing career before they saw a cent in return.

This may be the most obvious sporting example where it's not always right to bag the messenger.

Especially if the messenger gets Parker into an 80,000-seat arena against the most marketable man in boxing.

Best of the week
I love day-night test cricket. It has brought balance back to a game where the bat has dominated for too long.

Cricket is an Australian obsession, but in recent years, Steve Smith's side has not been the drawcard it was, with falling attendances across all forms.

Yet we've just had a test in Adelaide rewriting more than 100 years of cricketing history, including in terms of fans through the gates.

And they're new fans to the game. Much like the T20 revolution, there are more families, females and non-cricketing types attending.

Change is not always best in sport but this is a game changer for test cricket, which had been losing relevance and revenue.

Worst of the Week
This decision could fall into the best or worst of the week but I put the International Olympic Committee here because they're a year behind admitting what the world already knew — that Russia sponsors cheats.

This is the same organisation that allowed Russia to compete at last year's Rio Olympics. The Paralympic Committee had the will and determination to ban the Russians but not the politically and financially-minded IOC.

So while some may feel justice has finally been done, we're also left wondering who else is ignoring the rules.

How much does the IOC know, or more significantly, want to know?

If not for a couple of Russian whistleblowers, the work of an American documentary maker and a concerted campaign from Wada to force action, I wonder if the IOC would have continued to bury its head in the sand.