Joe Joyce and Joseph Parker Pick an identical rematch
Joseph Parker and Joe Joyce are gearing up to fight each other next month – but they agreed on one thing before their match.
The couple will meet at Manchester Arena on September 24live exclusively on BT Sport Box Office, in the battle between number one and number two boxers with WBO.
The winner is expected to be named the mandatory challenger to Oleksandr Usyk, the current champion.
And both boxers chose the Ukrainian to get the better of Anthony Joshua when he rematches Brit on August 20 at Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia.
Former New Zealand WBO champion Parker, who shared the ring with Joshua in March 2018 but has been out of competition since last December’s unanimous decision win over Derek Chisora, when speaking to talkSPORT speak:
“I’m not sure what Joshua is doing with his new team and hopefully he’ll be a more progressive boxer.”
Joshua recently teamed up with Robert Garcia, parting ways with longtime mentor Robert McCracken, as he aspires to become a three-time unified champion at heavyweight.
Parker went on to make his choices:
“But I’m on Usyk’s side.”
Joyce, on the other hand, was most recently in the ring in July when he maneuvered the Christian Hammer within four rounds at the OVO Arena in Wembley, London.
He went up against Usyk as an amateur, in the World Series of Boxing, back in 2013 – and he’s determined to get his own hit against the impossible former weight cruiser champion. controversy, cleared all belts in the 200-pound weight class before moving on to heavyweight.
Joyce told talkSPORT:
“Usyk has already defeated Joshua.
“So it was like that again and he also had the confidence to beat him for the first time.
“Now Joshua has to step up his fight and try to get those titles back. I still think Usyk has what it takes to beat him again.
“But Joshua has a puncher’s chance, a heavy punch, but if he can’t land those big hits, it’s Usyk.”