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How Joseph Parker turned his career around after trainer switch to Andy Lee
For the last two years, Joseph Parker has been enjoying a career rebirth, re-summitting the heavyweight mountain after it seemed he may have tumbled forever in pursuit of greatness in 2018.
But Parker never threw in the towel and now finds himself one fight away from a shot at the undisputed heavyweight titles next year.
All that remains for him to do is dispatch young and hungry contender Fabio Wardley in defence of his WBO interim heavyweight title this weekend.
This journey has been far from linear, with myriad changes and challenges that could have easily thrown Parker off course.
But since coming under the vigilant tutelage of world champion trainer Andy Lee, we have seen a more resilient and confident Parker who has beaten some of the top contenders in the heavyweight division.
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Where was Parker before meeting Andy Lee?
It is important to mention that, in qualifying Joseph Parker’s recent career run as a ‘renaissance’, it is not to say he was not successful under his long-time coach Kevin Barry.
In 2016, at just 24 years old and having only fought for regional honours, Parker took a big step up and faced Andy Ruiz Jr for the WBO title left vacant by his future ally, Tyson Fury.
Parker and Ruiz battled hard for 12 rounds, and the Kiwi emerged as the winner via majority decision to become the second youngest heavyweight champion of the 21st century behind Wladimir Klitschko.
The heavyweight division was in a minor downturn following the departure of both Klitschko and Fury, but Parker rose to the occasion and had two successful subsequent defences against Razvan Cojanu and Hughie Fury.
Still only 26, Parker took on what is probably still the biggest test of his career in a unification fight with Anthony Joshua, who had knocked out every single one of his opponents to that point.
Parker delivered a defiant performance but lacked the next gear required to get the decision against Joshua, and was sent back to New Zealand without his belt and with a big call to make.
Desperate to get back to world title contention, Parker decided to go straight back in with Dillian Whyte and suffered a second defeat in a row across 12 rounds to the Brit. It looked as though Parker’s time at the top of the heavyweight division had come to an end in less than a year.
Parker was then demoted to fighting on smaller shows and undercards, recording four low-key wins, but had fallen out of love with the sport and opted to make a change to his training camp that would drastically change the trajectory of his career.
“In the beginning, when I was training over in Las Vegas with Kevin Barry, I loved it, loved it,” Parker recently told iFL TV. “Then I sort of just drifted from it. That’s probably why I changed trainers, I wanted to find something, and I feel like I've found it now.”
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The Andy Lee link-up
Parker and Lee met through a mutual friend, Tyson Fury, and Parker immediately knew that Lee was the right man to take him back to the top.
They made their link-up official ahead of Parker’s first big-name fight after losing to Whyte, against Derek Chisora, and after just a few weeks, he said that he hoped their relationship was a long-term one.
“It’s dependent on the result,” Parker told Stuff. “There’s always a chance you win or lose in this game, but personally, I want this relationship to last.
“I feel like it’s going to be a long-term relationship if we win this fight.”
Parker would go on to beat Chisora via split decision, which was a good start to the relationship, but they wanted more and went one better in the rematch, beating ‘Del Boy’ via unanimous decision.
The groundwork was being laid for a successful relationship, but something was missing.
Matchroom Boxing
Setbacks
Now looking to set up a run at becoming a two-time heavyweight champion, Parker took a fight against the undefeated Olympic silver medallist Joe Joyce in 2022.
Joyce was coming off an impressive win against Daniel Dubois and was touted as a serious threat in the heavyweight division.
On fight night, Parker struggled to put a dent in the immovable Joyce and having given everything in trying to put Joyce down. He fell to an 11th-round knockout loss which put his world title credentials into doubt – forcing him and Lee back to the drawing board.
A lacklustre comeback win against Jack Massey offered no reason to believe Parker was capable of another resurgence.
But the arrival of George Lockhart as his strength and conditioning coach, paired with the pugilistic insight of Lee, proved to be the winning combination for Parker.
Lockhart was initially only part of Parker’s camp in connection with Fury, but he said he saw a total lack of structure in Parker’s strength and conditioning work and was given the responsibility of taking charge ahead of his fight with Faiga Opelu.
“I was just doing the nutrition aspect for him,” Lockhart explained to BoxingScene. “They came into the gym one day, and I was just dumbfounded to see the lack of scheduling, structure, etc.
“I work closely with Andy [Lee] so that everything is connected and makes sense.”
The renaissance
With Lee and Lockhart in support, Parker returned in dominating fashion, demolishing Opelu in the first round and followed that up with a third-round knockout of Simon Kean in his third fight of 2023.
Despite having fought Massey the same year, it looked like a completely different fighter, more physically dominant and able to box confidently on both the front and back foot.
In an unprecedented run for a modern heavyweight, Parker had a fourth fight in 2023 against the former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder to re-establish himself at the top table.
Parker boxed imperiously against a formerly dominant Wilder and executed a masterful Lee gameplan to keep Wilder on the back foot and avoid the one-shot knockout power of the American.
Parker dominated Wilder in a way we have only seen Fury manage, and he claimed a unanimous decision to propel himself into a WBO interim world title fight against the feared Chinese contender Zhilei Zhang.
Having had the opportunity to show how he could intelligently dominate a fight against Wilder, Parker then had to show his resolve and how much he had really improved under Lee.
Zhang was the much bigger man and had two highlight-reel stoppages over the man who had recently beaten Parker, Joe Joyce. Many thought it was a bridge too far for the Kiwi.
But Parker boxed strictly to a gameplan, and despite getting dropped twice along the way, he picked up a majority decision win and became the WBO interim champion, five years after losing his world title to Joshua.
Daniel Dubois was next for Parker, and an opportunity to become a two-time heavyweight champion. But Dubois pulled out just days before the fight and left Parker to defend his interim title against Martin Bakole in February.
Bakole had skyrocketed to fame after an upset knockout win over world title hopeful Jared Anderson and held the sort of power that had troubled Parker before.
But Parker was unafraid and took the fight to Bakole, the self-proclaimed most avoided heavyweight in the world. He produced a highlight-reel knockout over the Congolese power puncher to become the de facto number one contender in the heavyweight division.
In a run of three fights, Parker had bested one former world champion and two giants who were widely considered threats to the heavyweight throne – and now waits on the doorstep of undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Watch Parker vs. Wardley live on DAZN
Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley fight on Saturday, October 25, to become the WBO mandatory challenger to Oleksandr Usyk. Watch the fight and undercard live and exclusive on DAZN PPV.
