Parker bulks up for Whyte “war”

27 July 2018, 12:00AM

Lupesoliai Joseph Parker and Dillian Whyte are ready to rumble.

Ahead of tomorrow morning’s (Samoan time) all-important bout at London’s 02 Arena, Lupesoliai and Whyte stepped on the scales for the usual prefight weigh in this morning.

Parker weighed in at 110kg, 3kg heavier than his last fight against Anthony Joshua in April. Whyte weighed in at 118kg, 2.26kg heavier than his last fight against Australia's Lucas Browne.

At the weigh in, Whyte appeared that he wanted to be the aggressor.

But Parker just smiled. 

"He was trying to act like the tough guy, trying to intimidate me, nose to nose," he said. "Lucky he wasn't breathing and I wasn't breathing. Then we would have had some issues."

As for his weight, Parker said this is not an issue.

"On weigh-in day we usually train in the morning, but Kev was 'we don't need to train now, we're in great shape'. This is the first time I haven't trained for the weigh-in, and if I had we would have been 107."

A win for either fighter would put them in pole position to challenge for Deontay Wilder's WBC championship, and Joshua's WBO, WBA and IBF belts.

Parker's trainer Kevin Barry is confident the 26-year-old Samoan will win by knockout as he looks to avoid back-to-back defeats after losing his WBO world title to Joshua in Cardiff.

That was Parker's only blemish on an otherwise unbeaten record, a fact he shares with London's Whyte, whose sole defeat also came against Joshua, back in December 2015.

"I think we are in a very tough fight, but I think Joe is right where I want him to be," Barry said.

"I'm supremely confident. Joe is confident. The team around us is confident. I really feel we are going to have a great performance tomorrow night.

"We'll be going for a knockout that's for sure. We haven't had one in the last four fights.

"I can promise you that Joe is going to be hitting this guy with every piece of energy in his body."

27 July 2018, 12:00AM

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