The long-awaited Joseph Parker-Junior Fa heavyweight bout is confirmed for December 11 at Spark Arena in Auckland.
Leading into Junior Fa's upcoming bout against Joseph Parker, plenty will be made about the vastly superior experience Parker has, with names like Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte and Andy Ruiz Jr on Parker's professional resume.
However, Fa has his own point of difference.
February 27th's fight, in association with StonewoodHomes, will be Fa's first opportunity at top-tier talent and that gives him a hunger Parker won't have; but one Parker had in his win over Carlos Takam in back in 2016.
"Junior has the hunger that Joseph had back then," Fa's trainer Eugene Bareman said.
"You can only get that hunger once; it's the hunger that you have when you haven't stepped over that line yet, when you haven't gone to that next level. We're going to use that to the best of our ability in this fight to take advantage of the situation.
Junior Fa last fought in New Zealand in 2018. Photo / Photosport
"What's going to overcome Joseph's experience first of all is whether we can impose our strategy more than they can impose their strategy, and Junior's will – his will of mind and power and attitude to win that night; to be hungrier that night, to be hungrier than a person that has already achieved what Junior is trying to achieve. That's what we're building on; we're building on the fact that Junior is in the same position Joseph was when he fought Carlos Takam."
While the bout was not officially announced until October, it's a fight Fa's team have been hoping would eventuate and have been working towards for months before then.
Late last year Bareman said Fa was hitting peak condition already, putting the team in a favourable position for the home stretch.
"Word of this fight for us, even though it wasn't put on the dotted line, came relatively early and we started straight away," Bareman said.
Junior Fa is unbeaten in 19 professional boxing bouts. Photo / Dean Purcell.
"Considering that Junior has been inactive because of the global situation at the moment, we got him on a fitness regimen, a weights regimen, a power regimen really early. If you look at him physically now, he's in the best shape that he's ever been in at this point.
"He's actually at the point power-wise, fitness-wise and strength-wise, physically where we're don't want much more improvement. We're not going to get much more improvement which is fantastic for us because with the time that's left, we can spend it doing boxing.
"In many, many camps around the world, that's not the case. Sometimes you have to do a lot of the camp getting the guy in shape before you can even start thinking about boxing. We don't have to do that, so we're taking that advantage into the fight."
