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June 19, 2024 11 mins

Kiwi heavyweight champion Joseph Parker is branching out. 

He’s moving into the promotion business, partnering up with Duco Boxing and Dazn for a multi-fight partnership, headlined by David Nyika. 

It’s Parker’s first time as a promoter, working alongside his longtime friend and manager David Higgins.  

He told Mike Hosking that Nyika has achieved a lot as an amateur, has a great work ethic, height and reach, and he reckons they’re very fortunate to be working with talent like him. 

Parker’s shift to promotions is not unexpected, as in the years since Higgins became his manager, he taught him about the business side of things. 

“I’ve always shown interest in, you know, the sponsorship, the venue, the tickets, the corporates, and now he’s given me the opportunity to do this event together.” 

He said it's a view to life beyond the ring, but also a chance to give back to others in the sport. 

“I want to help other fighters and give them the same opportunity I was given from David Higgins to reach the top.” 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
That's a tread power of will five percent pleasure. It
is seven past eight. Time for a catch up with
Joe Parker, who since he was last here, has re
energized his career, won a couple of standout fights and
is very much back in the heavyweight world title conversation.
He's also branching out and moving into the promotion business

(00:24):
with an upcoming fight involving David Nicolo. This anyway, Joe Parkers, Well,
it's good to see him morning.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good to see you. Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Can I just congratulate you because the last time you're
in here and I can't remember, but it was a
couple of years ago. It's pre these last couple of
fights you've done, and and and Joyce and Jang and
I've watched it all and I've followed you throughout the years,
and it's just such a thrill to see you now
doing so well because those last two fights were amazing
to watch. Do you do you feel the same?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Do you know what I've had. I've had a great
journey and it continues, and I've been boxing for eleven
years and I feel like the last year is the
year finally I found the right formula that works for me.
The right training, the right program, the right nutrition, the
right rest. Everything now is falling into place in the
tecond meet ten years to get there.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, did you know along the way something was missing?
Per se or not?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I always ask myself questions after each fight. The Joyce
fire asks myself many questions. Another fire I had was
Jack Massey, where I had a win, but I wasn't
a convincing one and it wasn't the best win. I
thought to myself, why am I not winning in a
way where I know I can win? Why is my
conditioning not the best? Why am I not resting well?
And I started asking myself all these questions, and it

(01:36):
made me find the right person and who is Who
is George Lockert? The best nutrition, is the best strength
the conditioning trainer in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
So what does he literally do for you versus what
Andy does for you?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
For example, Andy Lee is the best boxing train in
the world, and Andy Lee is the head trainer going
into every fight in every camp. But George Lockert, he's
that important that I flown him down to New Zealand
and he's living with me for three months while we build.
He cooked all my food every day he trains me Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
and we're just building, building, building for the next fight.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
So he tells you what to eat.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
He gives me what to eat.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
So he just gives it to you, and what what
do you eat? And what's different about it?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
At the moment, we're doing a building phase. And in boxing,
I've never even known about phases, building phase, you know,
endurance phase, power phase. I've never knew anything about this
until the last year working with George. And at the
moment he's feeding me seven thousand calories a day. We're building,
We're building building buildings. He wants me to be bigger, faster,
stronger for when I fight, for when I fight and

(02:34):
lock in the next fight.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
So here here's the thing. So, so I follow you.
I follow boxing, but I'm not an expert like you.
I'm assuming that this is all in place, that this
is a science that you're all international, top level sport
is at the cutting edge of nutrition and science.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
You know what. Boxing has been around for the longest time,
and I kid you not boxing is way behind on
all this stuff. George Lockhart is very shocked when he
came into boxing to find out that we don't have
anything in place. Being the one of the longest sports around,
there's nothing in place in terms of having a program,
having a structure, having a plan. There's nothing.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's the weirdest thing. So because I look at you now,
you're bigger than you have been. And one of the
criticisms over the years about you is you're not big enough.
If you get to Joshua, you're not big enough. So
you're fixing that. Now we're fixing that. And the difference now,
like you said, the difference with myself and the bigger
fighters is that the size. But now we're fixing that.
We're kind of close the gap. And the next time

(03:33):
I fight, it's not going to be ten or twelve
kg's heavy. It's going to be three or four Jeez.
Are you resentful of that or disappointed in that? Or
it is what it is?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I mean, it is what it is. You can't go back,
and everything is timing and the time is.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Now okay, since we also like, where are you at
fight wise? By the way, do you know anything or not?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I don't know anything at the moment. At the moment,
I'm just building and waiting for the next fight to
be announced or to be locked in. It's looking like
it was September and now October, right, so that I'm
building and I'm just I'm getting into promotion.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, now this is why you're here, David, Nica. See
now there's this is so Nika is built fantastically and
he's an adornis, isn't it? So give it? Given what
you just said about nutrition and building phases and stuff
like that, is that just natural? So Joshua looks the
way he looks, and Nika looks the way he looks.
Other people look different. That's just god, I thought.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Listen, I'm not really aware of what what other fighters
go through, but I'm sure Joshua has a great set
up himself being involved and you know, he's got the team,
British team around him, and I'm sure he's being introduced
to all these things that I'm talking about now. Sure,
David and Aika, when I trained with him in the past,
he knew more about this kind of stuff than I did,
you know, So he's very You know, he's achieved a

(04:46):
lot as an amateur. Yeah, Bronze middle at the Olympus
coming off games, and now he's made a great start
to his professional career. But he does look very good.
He's got a great work ethic, he's got height and reach,
He's got the abs that I've always wanted. So he
is he is the part right, and we're very I reckon.
We're fortunate to be working off a talent like David made.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Now have this promotion thing come about with you and
David David Higgins.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
David Higgins had locked after my career from the beginning,
I signed a promotional contract for six years en after
they became my manager, and along the way, David has
always taught me about the business side of boxing and
what's involved. And I've always shown interest in the sponsorship,
the venue, the tickets, the corporates, and now now he's
given me an opportunity to do this event together. It's

(05:31):
going to be my first promotional co promotion with David Higgins.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Good on you. Is that to a view to life
beyond the ring?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yes, it is life beyond the ring? But also I
want to help other fighters and give them the same
opportunity I was given from David Higgins to reach the top.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
All right, enough, listen to hold on there, mate, and
we'll take a brief break more and more and more
boxing talk at the moment with Joseph park At thirteen
past eight talks it will be fifteen passed. Make a
quarter past eight on the my casking breakfast at Joe
Parkers and just before we leave, this is the Nikeer
thing with your promoter's head and how far do you reckon?
Nika can actually go?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Nik has already shown that he's been inspiring with the
top of the world in England and he's given like
he's given them the best work they've ever gotten. So
if he continues to keep busy and keep progressing the
way he is now, he's going to be I reckon
He's going to be champion of the world in the
next two three.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Just to explain to people that he's one below heavyweight,
doesn't he cruise away so he wouldn't step up per
se he's a cruiser and that.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
You can really you know, well for YOUU sik Usick
was a unified champion of the world and he sepped
up to heavyweight and now he's a unified champion of
the world in heavyweight beating Tyson Fury. Yeahka can do
the same thing. It's all up to.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Seriously, you can How much of it do you reckon
in your experience now? Is God given talent versus if
you work hard enough with less talent you can get there.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
You need the talent, you need the hard work. And
I believe I have the talent and hard work, and
I believe David Aka has the talent and the hard work.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
That's super exciting. Since also we last talked, I've seen
that reality television show that Tyson Fury did you know
in More and Family and all, and that's you know,
you've hung with him and his family and how he
works and stuff. Is that beneficial of that? Is that
whole Fury experience been beneficial to you?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well? Weout, Tyson, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Tyson gave me the link to train of Andy Lee.
He gave me the link to employ George Lockhart. He
gave me his house you live in. He gave me
the opportunity to fight and read him and Spencer Brown.
So without the relationship we have, I wouldn't be where
I'm today.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
That's amazing, isn't it? Is he coming back?

Speaker 2 (07:32):
He is? He's fighting on the twenty first of December,
right against you, Sik. It's a rematch. It's going to
be back in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
What what you were there? You saw it? What do
you reckon? Happen? What went wrong?

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I feel like Tyson needs, from my own opinion, Tyson
needs to be the big man and fight like the
big man. Yeah, and I'm sure he can make those
positive changes coming into them.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
I could see and watching the television show, because you
know him, you live with him. I don't. But but
in watching the television program, he seems to be like
he loves life until what I got a fight, So
I go down to the marcamb gym and then I
start mucking around for a while and lose some weight
and getting the He seems to be a freak of nature,
is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
He's a freak of nature. But he loves to have
something locked in, something locked in. He has purpose, and
then all of a sudden he locks himself away and
he's just groining day in and day out.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Right, So he hasn't reached the stage in his life
where he wants to give it away like him, I
don't think so. So I've done everything I need to.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
If I was in that position and I became unified
chamber of the world. I would probably finish boxing, finish
at the top.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Do you reckon you could be unified?

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I can? I know I can.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Because this is what see what's so exciting about this one.
You've got a whole bunch of genuine contenders. At the moment.
Heavyweight boxing looks fantastic, doesn't it in terms of contenders.
Second of all, to have a unified instead of all
these belts spread out all over the place, to have
a unified champion, that's wonderful for the sport.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's great for the sport. You have one champion, one face,
one name. I can be that man.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
How far off or how many fights off do you
reckon you are from that chance?

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I'm one fight off, one or two fights off being
champion of the world, three or four fights being unified
champion of the world.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
It's amazing, very close. And then you're going to walk
away and be a promoter.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'll walk away, I'll be a promoter. I'll probably I'll
just do something else with my life, you know, enjoy it.
But I'd like to help other young fighters. Starting off
with Devon aka Reash the top.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
That's brilliant and Saudi Arabia. Give me your take on
see once upon a time when you started Kevin Barry
Las Vegas. Then it seemed to move to London and
now it's moved to Saudi Arabia. They seem to have
all the money in the world. And that's we're sport.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
That's listen taken over. And also it's not just going
to be in Saudi Arabba. They've got a show in America,
They've got to show in the UK. I'm sure they're
going to expand and go to Australia and all around
the world. Yeah, Saudi Arabia is taking over the sports
world the.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Book because the streaming service that you're on with Nika,
the Zone, Yeah, that's is that out of Saudi Arabia
or not? Am I making that all around the world? Yeah,
so they stream it, they stream it everywhere.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
So devon Akas Flight's going to be on the Zone,
it's going to be live here in New Zealand. It's
going to be broadcasts all around the world.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
So that's amazing. He's going to we don't know who
he's fighting doing yet yet.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
But there's a few names that he's they're just negotiating good.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Names decent names, good names, sell out names, names that
i'd buy a table for to come along, of course,
all that stuff. Of course, good on you, all right, mate, Well,
so you'll fight one more time before the end of
the year.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
You were like one or two fights, one or two
hopefully October and December.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
When you're in your phase at the moment with your
seven thousand calories. How much work are you doing physically?
A lot of because you've got to burn that.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Stuff's night around an hour and a half, Monday night
around an hour. And I'm doing weights and I'm just
I'm doing waits in cardio.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, there's a.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Lot of hard work. And I'm tired. I'm tired from
the training. I'm tired from eating, I'm tired from the family.
I'm tired from everything. But you know what, I love
it more now than I've ever done before.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Good on you, mate, Listen, it's lovely to catch up
with you. Good luck with the promotion job, good luck
with a fight. We'll get you back in again too,
very much. Always good to see you. There we go,
Joseph Parker. Now this morning, good stuff. It is already
twenty one past eight. For more from the mic, asking Breakfast.
Listen live to news talks it'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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