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December 23, 2025 11 mins

"Absolutely no idea": Joseph Parker uncertain of his next opponent 

Joseph Parker’s next fight is still up in the air.  

The Kiwi boxer was set to challenge Daniel Dubois for the IBF Heavyweight belt, before pulling out last-minute on medical advice.  

Since then, Parker has called out Oleksandr Usyk, but Dubois may be first in line for that fight. 

Parker told Mike Hosking that there’s a lot of different ways the timeline could play out. 

He says he has no idea what’s happening next, and for now, is just focused on training, spending time with family, and finding a good balance in life. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time for a couple of rounds with Joseph Parker. It
was supposed to be Daniel Dubois, of course, but he
got ill, or did he? Anyway, they found a bloke
in the congo who stepped up, only to get beaten
up quite badly. A rematch with Dubois is possible, although
Dubois and you sick might happen first. Although should you
sick fight Parker first? And where does Anthony Joshu are

(00:20):
fitting to all of this? Geez, how many questions Joseph
Parker is with?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
That sounds you know what? That sounds confusing? You trying
to explain it. It is quite a confusing sort of scenario,
isn't that? Well?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Help good to see you, by the way, And so
you've been on holiday and you look amazing.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Beautiful time of the family, had a great holidays more
Fiji bull of a knackatalof I'm happy and I'm back.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
There you go, So let me just just help us
work through what's going on here. So the Dubois thing
could be a rematch, but we don't know.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It could be a rematch, But do you sick? And
Dubois looking at unifying the belts Dubois has one title
and USIC has three titles. So unification does trumpet a mandatory.
They've made me mandatory, which means I should fight Yusick next.
But there's a lot of things happening in the background
where they're trying to make this big fight against the
boy and music. Then you have Jasaa jumping in the mix.

(01:15):
He's been ordered to fight du Bois. So there's a
lot of different ways that this will play out.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Right, where do you sit right now this morning talking
to me? You don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I have no idea what's happening next. All I can
all I'm focused on now is just training. I got
George Locker here in New Zealand, training, eating, spending time
with the family, finding a good balance in life. But
at the moment, I have absolutely no idea who I'm
fighting next.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
How do you prepare physically for something that you don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I am driven and I'm motivated. My goal is to
become champion of the world. My next goal has to
become Unified champion undisputed. So because I have these goals
in mind, I'm doing everything I can now to prepare,
But I don't even know what's next. But I love it.
I don't know what's next, but I love it. I
love my I love waking up every day. I'm always

(02:02):
in good mood at the moment because I'm at a
deficit in terms of eating, which means I'm eating less food.
I do get grumpy a lot faster with the kids.
Sorry kids, Sorry life. But I love it. I love
it because I enjoy what I do and this purpose we.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Were talking about the softare and the Lockhoart thing is interesting.
What appears to me to have happened to you is
in the last couple of years, you've got some people
around you that have enhanced your ability to fight, that
have immeasurably improved who you are and what you're about.
Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
That is fair. As a fighter, you think you know everything,
or you think you know most of it, and you
think you have the best balance in life or the
best balance in training. But I was missing all of that.
Now I have the perfect balance in terms of strength conditioning, boxing, training, recovery,
strength conditioning, I mean nutrition. And I found the team

(02:56):
that works for me and you Lee, George Locket and
myself putting in the work and we make a great team.
David Higgins doing negotiations behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay, and Andy Lee. He seems to have made a
measurable difference. He seems to be really good at what
he does.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Andy I always had and in he's been the best.
But the one thing that I was missing was George
the strength condition of nutrition, which I now I understand
how important it is. The food that you eat helps
with recovery, helps with sleep, helps with energy.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
It is amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Food is it? The answer is everything the gut, the gut,
the microbiome, or what you eat, how you eat.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
I feel like we don't even understand all of that,
and I'm only I'm only understanding that now and learning
about it more every day.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Is I h got anything to do with it? In
that broad heavyweight idea that you you grow into being
a champion at the right age, you need to begin
your thirties or thereabouts.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
The prime time for a heavyweight is thirty onwards. And
I do feel like I'm growing into that prime time,
and I've given myself a few years to be involved
in boxing. But as a heavy wait thirty onwards is
good for the lighter weights. It's once you hit thirty
you sort of decline, And I'm not sure why. There's
a big difference. Maybe the young the lighter fighters for

(04:09):
a lot more punches, sure, and the heavyweights do pick
their shots and throw big bombs. But for us thirty
onwards as prime.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I should I suppose ask you about Dubois and the
the bloke you've thought Martin Bercoli. Yeah, I'd never heard
of him.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
I've had a lot of experience spiring him. He is
one tough man. Like even though I got him out
in the second round, then punches he leaned did hurt?

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Was that disappointing for you? I mean, how disappointed to.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Get him out? Or I can only control what I
can control?

Speaker 1 (04:39):
So that was Is that true when you say that?

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Because it is true. Like if you ask the team
when they when Dubois the fight and they said Martin
McCaul is next, I say, bring him on. Well, what
can I control is how I prepare for the fight,
my mindset and just then focused on.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
That's a good way. That's a good way to be.
I couldn't have handled it. I would have gone the
guy's cheating, go get in his hotel room fight. He's
not real.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Dragon because I feel like, there's why worry about things
you can't know.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
So Dubois, so we don't know where we're at. What
would you like to do?

Speaker 2 (05:10):
What I like to do is fight Dubai okay, and
and reschedule that fight because he is.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
So you win that and you get the title, his title.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
I wind out get his title, then you're onto.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Usick present and then you get then you get his titles.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, undisputed probably be the biggest and the best achievement
ever in boxing.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
So if you could, if you could, if it was possible,
you are two fights away from being the undisputed heavyweight championship.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Well, it's very possible.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Unfortunately that's not going to happen, though, is it.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Unfortunately it looks like things the other way. It looks
stay to bar and you said probably fight, yeah, and
I'm just going to stay patient and do you have
to wait? Though?

Speaker 1 (05:46):
So if du Boire and Usick fight, is there then
automatically a rematch in that contract.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
No, that's not unless they have a sounds so complicated.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Well it is complicated. It is complicated. But but you
would want if you would say you're lost to you Sik,
you'd want a shot again at those titles, wouldn't it right?
So that then just delays you.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It just delays me what I am.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
And Higgins said the other day, he suggested, Joshua, where's
Joshua in all this?

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Joshua lost to Daniel Dubois, so he's looking for a
comeback fight. I don't feel like he's the money fight
as well because of the big draws, a big name.
He put bumps on seats. I'm not looking for a
big money fight. I'm looking for a title fight. I'm
not going to become a champion of the world.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, but the problem is the money men want the
money fight.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Honey men want the money, and the money men make
the cause. Yeah. So you know sometimes they say you're
fighting this guy and this is what you're getting, and
you all you have to say is okay, I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I got to take a break. That cap you're wearing, yes,
do you buy them?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah? I'm going to start making them. And this it
says two time on it, because that's my goal to
become two time world champion.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Fantastic. I gotta get one of those. My wife, my wife,
My wife says I look stupid and caps the cap
will change all of that out of ten as a look, do.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
You know what eleven? Eleven out of ten? You look?
This morning?

Speaker 1 (07:10):
My wife will be listening, and I've got the tech
front of you. So sorry, So you don't want the
money fight? Joshua is the money fight? So do you
think you may have to put up with that?

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Sorry? I say you don't want the money fight because
you want the titles. If that's the only fight on
the line, you have to take the only option you'll
take any fight I want to. I want to be
a fighter who keeps active. I want to keep fighting
because the only way to progress and get better and
get closer to the title is to keep fighting.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Where's Joshua at? Do you reckon? He doesn't strike me
as something happened to him. I think, personally, for what
it's worth, I think he won. He got a huge
amount of money, and he lost his mental edge and
he's not as interested as he once was.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
I feel, yeah, I feel like the last fight I
saw of Duboir, he just couldn't handle that type of
style and someone who chased him down the ring and
put it on them from the beginning. And it's probably
that's probably how you're going to be eat him. Anyone
who wants to fight him in the future, that's probably
how you're going to beat him.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Because I didn't see use it coming either in the
sense when you beat Fury, I thought, oh, yeah, for enough,
and maybe that you got lucky. But twice you can't
argue with he's clearly when.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
You break it down, U six footwork, his hand movements,
his fans, everything about him he does perfectly. And that's uh,
that's something that's someone I would love to fight, just
to test myself against the best in the.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
World on a scale of the is he the best
outside of you? So so you and whom you would
see as the two best boxes in the world better Thana,
better than du Boire.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Better than Dubois, better than in order in order to
say that I need to test myself against.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Of course, is Fury out for good?

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Do you think I think he's out at the moment,
enjoying family time and enjoying time for himself. But boxing
one of the things. We can't leave it alone. And
I feel like Tyson's addicted to boxing, addicted to training,
addicted to camp, addicted to life inside.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Boxing, because he's one of those that correct me, I'm wrong.
He seems to be able to do whatever he wants
in life and then get back to camp and get
himself in the sort of shape. He seems like a
freak like that.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
He is a freak. And when I had the train
of him, he is a beast of a beast of
a man and a fighter. Yeah, but at the moment
he is. I mean he has retired a few times
to come back.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
My thing is, when you retire, I think you shou
stay out of the sport and enjoy your life and
then do something else what I would do.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
So well, yeah, well I read somewhere Higgins said this
is this is it for you? So you've got about
a year left? Is that what I read?

Speaker 2 (09:32):
About? Two years left?

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Two years left?

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, five years old, sometime in about thirty five.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
So you win a title, you win all the titles,
you are the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, and
you do.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
What defend him a few times? Yes, and then when
I'm thirty five, it just says I'm about to turn
thirty six, I'll retire.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
But do you lose them and retire or do you
hold them and retire?

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Hold him and retire, would bet just like what Lennox
law is, did.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
You retire at the champion of the world.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Champion of the world, undisputed, unified champion of the world.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Let's say that's true, and we all wanted to believe
it is. At that point, what do you how do
you feel the rest of your life given that that
is the I mean, no one gets that moment.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
No one gets that buzz or that moment of winning
a fight or celebrating after a fight. But when you've
achieved everything you set out to achieve, and you have
a beautiful, loving family who's just at home waiting for you,
and you're content, then it's some for you to do
something else. And I just got to it's just about
setting goals. If you have other goals in life that

(10:34):
you want to achieve, go and do that.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
That's fantastic. I enjoy your company. I always enjoy your company.
I'm glad you could come and thank you because you
didn't have to. And the cap I will give back
to you.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
But keep it, because.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
How many of these are there?

Speaker 2 (10:48):
There's one more left in my house.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
There's two. This is one of two.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's one of ten, one of one of one.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Of ten. Good to see you, Thank you, Joseph Parker.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
News Talks at B from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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