Undefeated Joseph Parker came through moments of adversity and continued his rise through the heavyweight division today by defeating and out pointing the 35-year-old experienced operator Carlos Takam over a 12 round unanimous decision in New Zealand and will now be in line for a world title shot against champion Anthony Joshua in the near future.
Going into the fight, there were a lot of questions around Joseph Parker overall as a fighter. Takam was a huge step up in opposition and has a resume full of giving top level fighters trouble including Alexander Povetkin & Mike Perez and holding a win over Tony Thompson. From the level Parker has been competing at since turning professional in 2012, it was a huge fight for the man from New Zealand, scores throughout the cards of 116-112 twice and 115-113 for Parker gave him the victory in an exciting and competitive bout.
A cagey start to the fight from Parker gave Takam plenty of openings and was finding his range to land his counters very quickly most notably the left hook brought a lot of success for the Cameroon. Once Parker began to establish the jab and mixed his shots up with some creative combinations, he began to take authority in the fight and took a lead through the mid-rounds.
Takam once again started landing some big counter shots that seemingly had Parker tiring out and needing to conserve energy. As the fight pushed on late Parker took centre of the ring and did land a huge onslaught of punches that had Takam in trouble before he landed another counter left that weathered the storm and as the fight pushed into the championship rounds the pace dropped, and Takam was only working the last minute of the rounds and gave a lot of steam away, and Parker picked his shots off well to win a points decision.
As a result, Parker has now established himself as one of the danger men in the heavyweight division and will now have IBF world champion Anthony Joshua from Britain on his radar.
