Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker 30-2 (21) is in talks to face top contender Joe ‘Juggernaut’ Joyce 13-0 (12) with a working date of May.
The 30-year-old New Zealander is coming off a comfortable points victory over Derek Chisora in December, dropping the Brixton man three times.
Now manager David Higgins has revealed his future plans for Parker.
“He fought Chisora and dominated him so his brand equity in the world and United Kingdom is at an all-time high,” Higgins told Sky Sports. “We almost feel like it is a home crowd and he’s obviously been on a lot of big PPV shows in the UK as well.
“The question is ‘who next?’ Joseph has signalled that he’d like to fight as soon as humanly possible. A possible opponent is Joe Joyce.
“Joe Joyce is obviously ranked No 1 with the WBO and Parker is ranked No 2. We would not take him for granted, almost a 50/50 type fight which the fans would obviously love.
“The Joyce team have reached out to us and said they’re going to make written offer. Both sides have talked about May timing, so we’ll see what that offer looks like.
“I think Joseph Parker would win because I think he’s looking better fight by fight, so I think if he continues to improve he’ll make reasonable work of Joyce and put him away.”
“And obviously their side will think Joyce will win, he’s got a great chin, durable, got a big punch, he’s got a lot going for him. It’s one of those 50/50 type matchups and the winner could be mandatory for WBO. It’s a fight that should happen at some stage.”
The other option Higgins is looking to explore is fighting in the United States with a number of high profile names in the mix, including former victim Andy Ruiz Jr who Parker defeated by majority decision to claim the vacant WBO crown in Auckland, New Zealand in December 2016.
“I’m in the United States at the moment and Joseph Parker has signalled he’d like to do what Tyson Fury has done and go to America and beat Americans. Not many British have done that,” Higgins continued.
“Joseph has said he’ll fight any of the big name and high-ranked Americans from Deontay Wilder to Andy Ruiz to Luis Ortiz to Michael Hunter, any of them we would look at,” Higgins continued.
“It will be interesting to see if any of these big name Americans are willing to get in a ring with Joseph Parker because we certainly reached out and made it known the opportunity is there.
“My job now is to model up what the American opportunities would look like, but right now to model up what the Joe Joyce opportunity would look like, so it looks like we’ve got a few options.”
