Anthony Joshua to face Joseph Parker in world heavyweight title unification bout
Joshua will move closer to unifying the four major world heavyweight titles if he beats WBO champion Parker.
Anthony Joshua will continue his quest to be crowned the undisputed world heavyweight champion since when he faces New Zealander Joseph Parker in Cardiff on March 31.
Joshua, who holds the WBA and IBF versions of the title, will add Parker’s WBO belt if he triumphs at the Principality Stadium, leaving only American WBC champion Deontay Wilder on his title hit-list.
The announcement brings an end to months of fractious negotiations with Parker, who defended his WBO title over Hughie Fury in Manchester in September, and was holding out for a bigger percentage of the purse.
It will be Joshua’s first fight since a gruelling late stoppage win over late replacement Carlos Takam at the same venue in October, and a win will move him closer to his goal of being the first heavyweight to hold all four major belts simultaneously.
Joshua said: “I would like to announce the official news that myself and Joseph Parker will be fighting on March 31 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
“It is a unification heavyweight championship fight. We all know what happened last time I was in a unification heavyweight championship fight – it was gruelling, it was interesting and we both left the ring with masses of respect.
Parker, who has won 18 of his 24 professional bouts inside the distance, is the natural next step for Joshua despite his under-whelming performance against the back-pedalling Fury, when he escaped with a majority decision.
The 26-year-old claimed the WBO crown by beating Andy Ruiz Jr. in Auckland in December 26 and made a low-key defence against Razvan Cojanu before venturing out of the southern hemisphere for only the second time to face Fury.
The problem for Joshua’s camp was the lack of obvious alternatives in a relatively low-key division, with a deal with Wilder still some distance away and former champion Tyson Fury still yet to return.
Parker clearly believes Joshua may be under-estimating him, insisting: “Anthony Joshua is in for a huge shock. A couple of months ago I heard him say ‘why should I be worried about this little kid from New Zealand’?
“Well, now he’s about to find out. And the world is about to find out whether AJ can really take a punch. My entire existence is now devoted to proving what the boxing world already knows.”
