By Ian S Palmer
Former WBO Heavyweight Champion Joseph Parker of New Zealand steps back into the ring this Saturday, February 29th when he takes on Shawndell Winters of Harvey, Illinois. The 10-round bout from Frisco, Texas can be seen live in North America on DAZN while fans in the UK can catch it on Sky sports Action. Parker last fought in June when he stopped Alex Leapai in the 10th round. Winters stopped Sergei Werwejko in the seventh round in November in his last outing.
The 28-year-old Parker won the WBO title in December, 2016 by beating Andy Ruiz Jr. by majority decision. He then lost it via unanimous decision to Anthony Joshua in March of 2018 with his other loss being a somewhat controversial 12-round unanimous decision to Dillian Whyte in August, 2018 for the vacant WBO International and the WBC Silver Heavyweight Titles. Parker’s still relatively young for an experienced heavyweight and has a fine record of 26-2 with 20 Kos.
He’s got above average power with a current knockout ratio of 71.4 per cent but has gone the distance in five of his last seven fights. Parker’s well known for his power but his speed should also be taken note of as he has pretty quick hands as well. His biggest problem is leaving himself open for counter shots. Parker doesn’t mind taking one or two punches to land one of his own and so far his chin has more or less held out and certainly passed the test as it’s been tested quite often.
But to be honest, Parker’s power has gotten him this far in his pro career rather than his his boxing skills. He went the distance five times in a row from 2016 to 2018 against Whyte, Joshua, Hughie Fury, Razvan Cojanu and Ruiz before winning his last two contests by stoppage against Alexander Flores and Leapai. Parker, who’s now based in Las Vegas, still needs to improve his stamina so he can fight the full three minutes of every round if he’s forced to.
He won the WBO Oriental Heavyweight Championship by stopping American Brian Minto in seven rounds back in 2014 and also won several other regional heavyweight titles in his part of the world such as the WBO Oriental Title and the OPBF crown. He’s also beaten the likes of some pretty good opponents in Alexander Dimitrenko, Carlos Takam, Marcelo Luiz Nascimento, Kali Meehan, Bowie Tupou, Jason Pettaway, Frans Botha and Sherman Williams.
Parker turned pro back in 2005 after an excellent amateur career and has 160 rounds under his belt since then. He also has decent size for a modern-day heavyweight at 6-feet-4-inches in height with a 76-inch. Parker’s not the most athletic of boxers though and generally has trouble against fleet-footed and mobile opponents. He also needs to instill a killer instinct. He waited too long to go after Whyte and virtually had him out on his feet just as the bell rang to end the contest.
As for Winters, he’s now 39 years old and relatively unknown to most boxing fans. He turned pro back in 2015 when he was already 34 years old and has compiled a record of 13-2 with 12 Kos. He’s obviously got some dynamite in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 80 per cent. He won the NABA Heavyweight Title by stopping Oleksandr Teslenko in the fifth round in September but most of his wins have been against unknowns such as Ryan Soft, Joe Jones, Raymond Gray, Joey Montoya and Maxwell Amponsah.
Winters has won all of his fights by stoppage other than going four rounds against Montoya and taking a unanimous decision in 2015. His losses came at the hands of Brian Howard by second-round stoppage in 2017 and by eight-round majority decision to Nikodem Jezewski last April. Winters is 6-feet-2-inches tall with an unlisted reach so gives up two inches in height to Parker. He likes to keep busy but has boxed just 46 rounds since his pro debut mainly because of his power. Winters has never gone past eight rounds and has lasted the distance just twice so he’s definitely got a fan-friendly style.
Prediction…
Winters is a two-time Chicago Golden Gloves champ who enjoyed a good amateur career. He’s basically fought as a cruiserweight as a pro though since the heaviest he’s weighed in so far has been 206.5 lbs and has been as low as 179.75 lbs. For Winters to pull off an upset here he’s going to have to land a hell of a punch flush on Parker’s jaw and it’s always a possibility. Parker needs to get Winters out of there as soon as possible and to do so he needs to be aggressive and use his size. If he does, he should earn the W.
