Former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis has offered some free advice to Joseph Parker after the former WBO heavyweight champion lost back-to-back fights.
The 26-year-old Kiwi became the first boxer to take unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 21-0 (20) the distance in March, losing his world title in the process.
In an effort to get back into the mix at world championship level Parker 24-2 (18) agreed to a fight against WBC number one contender Dillian Whyte 24-1 (17) in July, losing a competitive 12-round decision in a fight that saw both men on the canvas.
Lewis, who fought and defeated the best boxers of the stacked heavyweight division of the 1990s and finished his career with a record of 41-2-1 (32), identified Parker’s predictability with his right hand and lack of lateral movement as two key areas to work on improving.
“Good fighters can really take advantage of that – and they did,” Lewis, 52, told the NZ Herald. “And one of the big problems is that he moves straight back.
“He doesn’t give you angles, and a blind man can basically weather two punches from Joseph Parker and throw four punches back and will hit him because he only moves back in the same space.”
Unlike a number of critics who have called on Parker to dump his coach Kevin Barry, Lewis doesn’t see that as the answer to his problems.
“These things can be fixed, he just needs the proper training. I’m not saying that he has a bad trainer, he just needs someone to teach him a couple of things. He can still be with his trainer, he just needs to learn,” said Lewis.
“It’s like golf, if you start off bad that’s just the way you’re going to be doing it. It’s more about reprogramming himself and then working on that. I had to do that, that’s what made me a five-dimensional fighter. In the fight I can change my style.”
