The BN Preview: Joseph Parker and Jack Massey are The Odd Few at heavyweight – Boxing Information
Nobody fairly is aware how or why heavyweights Joseph Parker and Jack Massey have been paired this weekend in Manchester, still it has happened and a single only hopes the match ignites at least a single of two careers really much in require of a jumpstart.
As strange as it is, the combat among Parker and Massey is indicative of two heavyweights in the wilderness right now. For Parker, very last witnessed getting flattened by Joe Joyce in the 11th round of a mini traditional in September, it signifies the opportunity to get back again on the horse and relaunch however yet another climb up the environment rankings, whilst for Massey, a person whose profession as a heavyweight is in its infancy, this battle is the ladder up he could have been requiring for some time.
Certainly, if you just take into account knowledge and seasoning, the result of Parker vs. Massey need to be quick ample to predict. It is Parker, following all, who has competed at considerably larger weights and amounts, both equally traditionally and in modern moments, and it is Parker, as well, who will come into the combat boasting wins against men like Andy Ruiz Jnr, Derek Chisora (twice), Hughie Fury and Carlos Takam.
Nevertheless, whilst Massey is unable to match all those wins with just about anything on his record, he has misplaced just after in 21 professional fights and has received his past 3 all by stoppage. If practically nothing else, then, the 29-12 months-old, known as “One Smack”, will be confident. He will be acquainted with the emotion of winning and, while a newcomer to the heavyweight division, will have each belief that his smaller sized stature and superior velocity can make Joseph Parker feel comparatively cumbersome in the ring.
Typically, of program, it is Parker who is the smaller sized man for the duration of fights at heavyweight. It’s an benefit he frequently makes use of as perfectly, consistently outboxing opponents with his quicker arms and toes and accumulating rounds on the scorecards.
Below, nevertheless, he will presumably have no this kind of luxury. Massey, acquiring never been heavier than 205 lbs throughout his 9-calendar year pro vocation, and acquiring never ever before officially competed at heavyweight, will obviously be the smaller sized and marginally faster man on combat night. No matter whether he can put this to excellent use is a different make any difference, nevertheless.
To day, Massey, 20-1 (11), has so significantly only fought one particular opponent of any genuine notice, versus whom he arrived up short by using 12-spherical choice in 2019. That man was Richard Riakporhe and the fight, though near, proved a stage as well much for Massey, then campaigning as a cruiserweight.
Now, in opposition to Parker, 30-3 (21), he will be competing at a equivalent amount – if not larger. In addition, he will be meeting another person in Parker who, even if struggle-hardened and it’s possible diminished by some of his past skirmishes against leading fighters, remains a gentleman of 31 several years of age, with enough freshness and ambition to fend off the menace of an opponent who, until eventually he proves in any other case, looks fairly out of his depth in this article. To show that, Parker really should consider to drive a stoppage, but the extra most likely end result, presented the New Zealander’s propensity to cruise, is a conclusion acquire.
Elsewhere on the card, while Jack Massey mixes it with a big name at heavyweight, previous opponent Richard Riakporhe settles for fighting a lesser but no less respected title down at cruiserweight.
His to start with authentic stage up as a professional arrives in the kind of Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki, 32-3 (20), who has certainly witnessed much better times but is a former WBO cruiserweight belt-holder and a crafty southpaw to boot. He won’t, at the age of 36, supply Riakporhe the type of risk the Londoner possibly wants to actually deliver out the most effective in himself, but he will absolutely pose him concerns and new appears to be like which could, if Riakporhe normally takes him frivolously, make issues attention-grabbing for a several rounds.
Riakporhe, of study course, is unbeaten at 15- (11) and has emerged in recent occasions as just one of the hardest hitters in the state. Immediate and spiteful, the 33-yr-aged possesses a vicious ideal hand and a fatal physique shot and has utilised this electricity to fantastic outcome, halting the likes of Fabio Turchi (TKO 2), Deion Jumah (KO 8) and Olanrewaju Durodola (TKO 5) in the very last year or so. He is tall and rangy at 6’5 and seems to have become an significantly difficult fighter to prevent, so measured and quiet is his strategy, and so decisive is the instant he explodes into action.
Glowacki, for his component, will have seen most models to day as a professional, nonetheless may well not have occur across someone like Riakporhe right before. He struggled very noticeably with the rangy design and style of Lawrence Okolie back in 2021, when stopped inside of six rounds, and has considering the fact that then only managed to defeat the 16-3 Francisco Rivas Ruiz via fourth-round stoppage very last April. All signs, thus, level to a male incredibly substantially on the drop, which should, if sort counts for anything, consequence in Riakporhe professing the largest scalp of his vocation somewhere all-around the halfway mark.
Perhaps the most aggressive battle on the Manchester undercard is just one at welterweight concerning Ekow Essuman and Chris Kongo, with both equally British and Commonwealth titles at stake.
Essuman, unbeaten at 18- (7), received these two belts in 2021 when halting Chris Jenkins inside 8 rounds. Considering the fact that then, he has correctly defended them towards Danny Ball (W KO 6), Darren Tetley (UD 12), and Samuel Anwi, whom he defeated around 12 rounds very last September. At 33, the Nottingham person is experiencing the greatest kind of his profession and relishing his purpose as champion.
Kongo, meanwhile, is three a long time Essuman’s junior at 30 and has misplaced just when in 15 professional fights (with 7 wins by stoppage). That decline arrived from Michael McKinson in 2021, when outpointed in excess of 10 rounds, however adhering to it Kongo responded nicely, winning two fights, like a 10-spherical determination gain in excess of Sebastian Formella final year.
Stylistically, this struggle need to be much additional to Kongo’s liking than the one versus McKinson, but it’s nonetheless hard to see outside of Essuman continuing his fantastic operate of form, most probable on points.