Joseph Parker defends his WBO Intercontinental heavyweight title against Derek Chisora in the rematch live from the AO Arena in Manchester, England on Saturday December 18, which makes it Sunday December 19 in Australia and New Zealand. NZ boxer says his “career is on the line” when he meets British veteran in the scheduled for twelve rounds matchup. Fans world can watch the fight live stream on DAZN (with the exception of New Zealand and Samoa).
The New Zealand star (29-2, 21 KOs) overcame a first-round knockdown to edge past former World title challenger Chisora last time out at the same venue back in May via a hard-fought split decision in his first fight with former WBO Middleweight king Andy Lee. Ranked at No.2 in the world with the WBO, former World Champion Parker heads into this weekend’s rematch knowing that a loss to Chisora would prove to be disastrous in his pursuit of becoming a two-time Heavyweight ruler.
“The first fight wasn’t the longest camp together with Andy, we were just getting to know each other and getting ready for the fight,” said Parker. “A longer camp is more beneficial as I am understanding more what Andy is trying to teach me. We’ve worked so hard every day and I think that it’s really going to show on the night.”
“Andy and I have been working on a lot of things in camp and the goal is to go in there and look better, and win but win well. I can say that I am going to be more dominant, more aggressive, and that sort of stuff, but I just want to go out there and fight and I will let my actions do the talking for me.”
Joseph Parker: It’s the first rematch of my career so I am excited for that
“I want the best Derek Chisora. I got a hard pressure fighter in the first fight with Derek and I think that he’ll be looking to make little adjustments to improve, so I am looking forward to what he’s going to bring. As long as I do what I can do it’s not going to go the distance, but I know he feels the same way. There’s no issues for me in the build up with a great camp and injury free.”
“I like Derek and respect him, but this is not the time to be friends before the fight. I need to take care of business because my career is on the line here. He’s achieved a lot and I respect him, but that can wait until after the fight.”
“I think the result was right. I did enough to win, it wasn’t the most dominant or best performance, it was a close fight but I believe I won it and it’s good to be able to run it back and to show the improvements I’ve made with Andy. It’s the first rematch of my career so I am excited for that and I just want to go out and fight hard, beat him up and put on a better performance and win in better fashion.”
Parker vs Chisora 2 headlines the Matchroom Boxing fight card, also featuring Jack Cullen (20-2-1, 9 KOs) up against Kevin Lele Sadjo (16-0, 14 KOs) for the vacant EBU European super middleweight title, and super featherweight contender Zelfa Barrett (26-1, 16 KOs) faceoff Bruno Tarimo (26-2-2, 5 KOs) in the IBF world title eliminator.
Get the full Parker vs Chisora 2 fight card.
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