New Zealand heavyweight Joseph Parker will fight in Australia for the first time next month when he takes on Faiga “Django” Opelu at the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne.
Parker will fight on a Kiwi double header on Wednesday, May 24, with undefeated cruiserweight David Nyika also on the bill.
It will be Parker’s first fight since his disappointing victory over little-known Englishman Jack Massey in Manchester in January which went the full 10 rounds. Before that he lost in a gruelling encounter against Joe Joyce – the first stoppage defeat in Parker’s career.
Opelu scored a shock win over Kiwi Hemi Ahio on the undercard of the George Kambosis v Devin Haney world title fight in Melbourne in October last year. It was Ahio’s first loss as a professional.
“He’s got to be really careful not to get upset in this fight because Django has shown how dangerous he can be,” Parker’s manager David Higgins told 1News.
Dean Lonergan, a former promoter of Parker’s alongside Higgins, has worked in boxing across the Tasman for the past decade and said Opelu was not a man to taken lightly.
“I love seeing Joe win and it was disappointing to see him take a loss against Joe Joyce,” he told 1News.
“That was a really tough fight. Django is a tough fighter and will give Joe a stern test but I can see Joe knocking him out in round seven, eight or nine because his skill-set is far superior and Joe will be the fitter fighter.
“I’m surprised to see Joe fighting in Australia. Compared to the UK it’s not a big market but I guess Joe wanted to fight closer to home and Aussie is just across the Ditch.
“A lot of people underestimate where Joe is in the world of heavyweight boxers right now. If he wins this fight and wins one more he’s right in the reckoning.”
Parker’s good friend Tyson Fury is the current WBC heavyweight champion, with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk the holder of the other belts, but the recent upset by Zhilei Zhang against Joyce in London has re-ordered the WBO rankings.
Southpaw Zhang, who stopped Joyce, is now the mandatory challenger to Usyk’s WBO title, with Parker ranked sixth by the organisation. The Kiwi-Samoan is ranked 10th by the WBC and 12th by the IBF.
After finishing with the Boxxer promotional company after the Massey win, Parker is a free agent which allows him to pick and choose and has led to him headlining this event put on by No Limits Boxing in Australia.
“Some people see not having a promoter as a negative but that isn’t necessarily the case at this stage of Joe’s career,” Higgins said.
“It can lead to more opportunities because the promoter hasn’t got that leverage, so Joe can take or leave fights as he sees fit.”
Parker, 31, a former WBO world heavyweight champion after beating Andy Ruiz Jr in Auckland in late 2016, wants to get back to fighting more frequently as he did in his prime, Higgins said.
Parker, currently training under Andy Lee in Dublin, fought only once last year and three times in 2021.
Nyika’s opponent is Australian Louis Marsters, whom he stopped on the Gold Coast in July last year.
Nyika's last fight was in October in Melbourne - a stunning knockout win against Titi Motusaga.
SHARE ME