Most would agree, if Parker loses tonight or looks bad in winning, it could permanently ruin his dreams of trying to become a two-time heavyweight champion.
These two big heavyweights battled last May in a fight won by former WBO champion Parker (29-2, 21 KOs) by a 12 round split decision, but the results left few fans satisfied.
Chisora looked like he wanted to slap Parker, 29, during the face-off on Friday, and you could clearly see fear in the eyes of the New Zealander.
Parker appeared nervous as if he wasn’t sure if Chisora would swat him hard as he’d done during his face-off with Vitali Klitschko in 2012.
“He looks in great shape, though. He doesn’t look chunky or overweight. I think they’re coming in for an early finish,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social on Joseph Parker weighing in at 251 lbs.
“I think they’re [Team Parker] are going to look to hold their feet and take him out. And I think him and Andy [Lee] know that you’ve got to look good in this fight to even start thinking to even start talking about challenging for the world heavyweight title,” Hearn said of Parker needing to look sensational against Chisora.
“And I think they’re going to go in tomorrow and try and outmuscle him [Chisora], sit on him, and push him back. If they do that, we’re going to get an absolute thriller.
“When he pulled down that thing and said, ‘Eddie,’ I just thought, ‘Oh.’ But that head-to-head, obviously Parker is not scared of Dereck Chisora, but he was petrified up there because he looked like he was about to do something
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I really think the last time that we had a really good fight, not a fight of the year, but we had a really good fight behind closed doors, tomorrow we’ll have a big crowd and a great undercard. And I think we’re going to have a good fight,” said Hearn of the Parker vs. Chisora 2 contest.
“Tarimo – Barrett would be brilliant because Tarimo will not stop coming forward, and Jack Cullen is never in a bad fight. That’s a really tough fight against an unbeaten Frenchman [Kevin Lele Sadjo] with 16 wins and 14 knockouts.
“Chisora – Parker, you’re never going to get a bad fight, are you? It’s either going to be a brutal war of attrition or someone is getting cleaned out. I’m going to go with the latter tomorrow night,” said Hearn.
