Victory will set Joseph Parker up in new era - Boxing promoter

Legendary promoter Bob Arum thinks Joseph Parker could be become the pre-eminent heavyweight of the era if he can defeat Andy Ruiz on Saturday night. Photo / Photosport

Legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum believes Joseph Parker has the ability to be the pre-eminent boxing heavyweight of the era if he can win on Saturday night.

Despite the politics of having numerous heavyweight titles around the world, Arum - who spent time promoting names like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Floyd Mayweather - believes Parker can be the undisputed champion.

"I think in the next couple of years, the public will anoint one of these young men - because of his ability - as the heavyweight champion," Arum told the Radio Sport Breakfast.

"And I really believe that the person who will be anointed worldwide, around the globe, will be the winner of the fight on Saturday."

The ramifications would be huge for Parker.

Arum has already made a claim that if Parker becomes champion, his next fight would be in the United States, on top of a massive fight card.

"The next logical step would be to fight in the United States on the top of the bill," Arum said.

"We would like, if Parker were to win, to have him, as the heavyweight champion, make his defence at the top of the card of championship fights."

But Arum wasn't giving Parker a sure-fire ticket. He still believes Andy Ruiz is one of the best in the world and, although stating Parker had the hardest punch in the division, said Ruiz has the skills to become the world's best as well.

Steve Bunce, a UK-based boxing analyst and columnist, suspects Arum might be talking up Parker's fame because of his promotional background, however, in this instance he agrees with Arum's claims that the winner will have a legitimate claim as the world's best.

"The winner on Saturday has as much credibility and as much right to be called the future of heavyweight boxing as all of the others," Bunce told the Radio Sport Breakfast.

He also believed that while the heavyweight titles continue to be split over four organisations, eventually the champions would have to come together in order to survive.

"All the guys that are involved in world title fights, because none of them are dominant, they'll all want to show they're dominant. And that means they will all eventually have to fight each.

"Those four guys [Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury, and potentially Joseph Parker] they need each other to become massive."