The one punch Parker could utilise to shatter Wardley’s world title dream

Fabio Wardley and Joseph Parker will battle it out tonight at the O2 Arena for the right to be the mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed heavyweight titles.

Parker is a veteran of the heavyweight division. He has been a world champion, suffered defeat and risen again to be just one fight away from re-summiting the final peak of heavyweight boxing.

Wardley is a rising star with a devastating knockout power that has carried him all the way to Parker’s front door, hoping to take the position he has endlessly toiled to gain and now maintain while Usyk hoards the belts.

The pair have very different styles that will no doubt make for a firecracker fight, power against poise and experience against youth.

Both men will have carefully constructed game plans on how best to unravel their opponents’ world title dreams, but one weapon in Parker’s arsenal poses the biggest tangible threat to Wardley.

What is this weapon, and why is Wardley vulnerable to it?

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While the jab is perhaps a pistol, the overhand right is a nuclear warhead, used by fighters with malicious intentions.

It differs from the traditional right hand in its trajectory. It has a slightly looping arc, which allows it to hit the target at an unorthodox angle, sneaking behind a traditional guard as the fighter stoops low to give it maximum velocity.

It is also utilised after a feint to the body to draw the opponent’s defence from their chin, which is why we see fighters drop their level before throwing the shot.

Parker has long had the overhand right in his repertoire, using it as the ultimate deterrent but also an offensive weapon.

In recent years, he has used it to devastating effect against some of the best fighters in the world. Whilst not known for his lights-out power, Parker has taken advantage of the overhand right when faced with more physical or taller fighters like Deontay Wilder, Dillian Whyte and Martin Bakole.

The reason Parker has found so much success with his overhand right is because he doesn’t just use it as a desperate Hail Mary, but he caters it to each opponent and situation he finds himself in – making it unpredictable and effective.

Parker has found himself successful with the overhand right throughout his career by not just utilising it as a desperate Hail Mary when looking for a knockout.

Against Whyte, Parker’s back was against the wall; he had suffered two knockdowns and was behind on the scorecards. An exhausted Parker detonated a lead overhand that floored Whyte with less than 30 seconds left in the fight.

If Parker had found that shot earlier in the round, there is a good argument to be made that he would have gone on to topple Whyte in the remaining time.

Against Wilder, Parker actually used his overhand right intelligently; rather than trying it as a last resort, he turned it into a counter shot to Wilder’s half-hearted jabs as a way to keep the American on his back foot and actually nearly ended the fight in the ninth round after landing an overhand, which wobbled Wilder badly.

By countering Wilder’s jabs, he also stifled him from being able to throw his fight-ending right hand. For any boxer, the jab acts as the range finder for all of their heavy attacks. If Wilder doesn’t find the target and gets countered, he not only doesn’t have his range, but he also loses confidence in his jab and resorts to firing off wild single shots, most of which never hit the target.

The best example of Parker using his overhand is in his most recent fight against Bakole. While it is true that Parker’s opponent was out of shape after taking the fight on short notice, make no mistake, flooring Bakole at any time is a challenge.

Bakole was confidently walking Parker down, looking for a short night’s work when Parker dropped his level and found the target with a monstrous overhand right that Bakole initially shrugged off but caused a delayed reaction. Parker then landed another overhand, which only clipped Bakole, but the cumulative damage of both put the heavy hitter on the canvas and ended the fight.

Wardley, despite his lack of amateur experience, has risen to the top of the heavyweight division, and the power and constant threat he carries are undeniable, but the other side of the coin is that there are some pretty big holes in his game that Parker can exploit – namely, his defence.

The Brit operates out of a very relaxed guard, with his right hand tucked just underneath his chin, ready to block, but his left hand stays cocked down by his hip, and even when he is in retreat, he never picks up that left hand to defend himself.

With the prevalence of Parker’s overhand right, this could prove to be a big problem. This is similar to how we saw Wilder shape up against Parker, and the Kiwi had no issues finding the target.

Wardley throws his jab from that low position, and it returns to the same spot, so if Parker and his team have picked up on this, he could easily look to nullify the jab and counter with the overhand to either force Wardley into an uncomfortable defensive situation or hit the target and look for a knockout as he did with Bakole.

Under the watchful eye of Ben Davison, you can be assured that Wardley will have worked on his defensive skills in the build-up to tonight’s fight.

At this point, it might be too late to fundamentally adjust the way Wardley shapes up in the ring, as it can throw off a fighter’s natural rhythm and stifle the way they box, which is more detrimental than helpful.

Due to his height and reach advantages, Wardley can afford to keep his left hand low in exchanges whilst at long range as the languid lead allows him to disguise his jab and get more snap onto it.

But once Wardley senses Parker sneaking into range, if he can raise the left hand to send a signal to Parker that he is ready for it in the early rounds, it might just put him off utilising that overhand.

Then, if Parker does throw the overhand, Wardley can either absorb it on the glove or take a step back and look to counter with a rear-uppercut as Parker moves his head down and to the side – catching him in an off-balance position.

Wardley has options at his disposal to nullify Parker’s threat, and he must find the right one if he wants to keep his world title dream alive.

Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley fight tonight, October 25, to become the WBO mandatory challenger to Oleksandr Usyk. Watch the fight and undercard live and exclusive on DAZN PPV.

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