My brief stint inside the weird world of boxing

Discovering the weird, puzzling, and at times addictive world of professional boxing from here in Invercargill.

Here’s something a little different for you to tuck into on your Monday. It’s my attempt to somewhat lift the lid on the time I found myself in the middle of the weird, puzzling, and at times addictive world of boxing.

It was 2010, I was working at The Southland Times as a sports reporter. We then fell under the Fairfax Media banner and were part of a nationwide network of sports journalists.

What would happen at that time was those sports journalists throughout New Zealand would be assigned various sports to take a lead on.

Most climbed over each other for the rugby round, others cricket. For someone based in Invercargill, you got the scraps.

Other sports languished like that plump kid who is last picked for a school-yard sports game.

At that point, boxing fell into that category. Boxing didn’t have a lot going for it, in terms of stories of any note.

Sonny Bill Williams was dabbling in the sport at the time, but it was treated like a rugby story given he was making his way in rugby at the time.

I had to find someone and something boxing-wise to write about. I lent a bit on Southland boxing stalwarts, the late Tom O’Connor and Russell Newton for a bit of advice.

There was a name that kept coming up. A 17-year-old South Auckland lad by the name of Joseph Parker.

I recall calling Parker out of the blue one day to put together a bit of a profile story. He was driving down an Auckland motorway but was kind enough to find a place to pull over to chat.

He was a pleasant lad, but someone at that point who wasn’t well-versed in talking to the media. How that would change.

Amateur boxing at the time got little attention. And when it did get some media attention, few actually cared enough to read it.

I was writing stories about Parker when no one actually wanted to read them.

Then come the world of professional boxing. A somewhat travelling circus that many people couldn’t help but be drawn into.

In 2012 after 66 amateur fights Parker turned pro. He was signed by Duco Events, then run by David Higgins and Dean Lonergan.

That’s when the weird and at times wonderful games began. The two confident promoters could be polarising, but within a year they turned Parker from a largely amateur no-name to an almost household name in New Zealand.

The whole process was mixed with a touch of genius alongside a fair bit of cringe.

Duco would fly Parker to all parts of New Zealand before fights to get his name out there, Invercargill was included.

He’d stop by with a minder, they conduct interviews with local media, walk down the main street and shake a few hands before heading onto the next stop.

Then when his fights would come along Duco would fly sports journos from throughout New Zealand - me included - to the fights to cover it. There was a fair bit of investment but a master play in building a boxer that Duco could sell to pay-per-view audiences.

As mentioned, it did come with some cringe though.

I recall being in Auckland for Parker’s fight against Francois Botha - probably the fight when Parker really captured New Zealand’s attention.

Again, it was a masterstroke by Duco, given they pointed to the fact they were putting Parker in the ring against a guy that had previously fought the likes of Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield.

The reality is those fights were over a decade prior to the Parker fight and he was 44 when he fought Parker.

Parker was always going to win, but there was as a sense of mystery created as to whether the promoters were chucking the promising young professional in too early against a big name.

It was the undercard to that fight where that real cringe was though.

Included was a fight between two dwarfs, radio DJs, and others all in the name of attracting some publicity outside your rusted-on boxer followers.

I recall writing an opinion piece at the time lamenting Duco for the publicity stunts and the disservice it was doing to the sport of boxing.

Soon after the piece was published Higgins’ number flashed up on my phone. I braced myself for what I thought was going to be something along the lines of, “we paid for you travel to that fight, you can’t write that”.

I was ready to push back.

That wasn’t the tone of the conversation though. Higgins explained his reasoning behind the undercard full of publicity stunts and why it was actually done to lift professional boxing in New Zealand out of the doldrums.

He suggested if Duco hadn’t searched for ways to draw added eye-balls to Parker’s early fights he’d have been fighting in halls and workingmen’s clubs throughout the country in front of no one, and for pay cheques that would hardly pay for petrol costs.

The whole circus that was created was all in a quest to build his profile and in turn get Parker better fights and ultimately better pay cheques.

That fact that five years after that conversation Parker landed a fight against Anthony Joshua in Cardiff in front of 80,000 people, and with a $12.5m payday, suggests Higgins may have had a point.

Higgins, and Lonergan earlier in Parker’s career, often played the role of agitator to land Parker decent fights.

It at times got them offside with the New Zealand public, people don’t tend to warm to that type of approach.

But if you pick it apart they had to do that.

Boxing is about selling fights and often the boxers do that themselves by running their mouths.

For Duco’s prized fighter, Parker, that wasn’t his strength. He looks awkward whenever he tries to bad-mouth an opponent, it’s not natural. Hence why Higgins and others in Parker’s camp have had to fill the gap.

It’s created more cringe, but again it’s hard to argue that it hasn’t worked.

Take that Joshua fight for example. Joshua’s promoters had little interest in that bout. Parker didn’t have a profile in the UK at the time and it didn’t provide an attractive pay-per-view option.

Higgins went about baiting Joshua’s camp over an extended period which included constantly suggesting the British superstar had a “glass jaw”.

Duco held a press conference where it released a video montage showing Joshua getting dropped in training.

The noise started to cut through and Parker did get that fight and the $12.5m pay cheque that came with it.

From my small taste interviewing people in the sport, it quickly became obvious the boxing world is as much a game of promotional chess as the actual 12 rounds in the ring.

We obviously got our own taste of that in Invercargill.

I had attended a David Tua fight at Trusts Arena in Waitakere, as well as Parker’s early fights at the same venue.

I remember one day telling Lonergan that Invercargill had a much better stadium that would be better suited to boxing. He thought I was taking the mickey, I was dead serious.

Then during the ILT Stadium Southland rebuild in 2014 Parker and then trainer Kevin Barry visited Invercargill in one of those country-wide tours to promote a particular fight.

We met them at ILT Stadium Southland and stadium general manager Nigel Skelt provided the pair with a tour. They were sold, they were keen to fight in Invercargill.

Of course, we circle back to the travelling circus. What it did is put Duco in the room with various Southland leaders to see what sort of deal could be crunched.

The Invercargill Licensing Trust, Community Trust South, Invercargill City Council, and Venture Southland (now Great South) put together an offer to get a Parker bout to Invercargill.

Parker spent the good part of a week in Invercargill before the fight. He literally held babies and worked the town like he was a politician on an election campaign.

Then came fight night. A night when the glitz and glamour of heavyweight boxing arrived in Invercargill attracting eyes from throughout the world with the event screened on ESPN.

It lasted just 63 seconds, Parker knocked out Bowie Tupou in the first round. Although the bean counters suggest it was still a success.

At the time then Infometrics Senior Economist Benje Patterson estimated it added collectively added $223,636 to the city’s GDP.

“This GDP boost amounts to $3,550 of value added to Invercargill’s economy for every second Joseph Parker was in the ring.”

There was talk of future Parker fights in Invercargill but it never eventuated as the money in the UK started to grow, in regard to boxing, and it was obvious that’s where Parker needed to be.

My time covering boxing came to an end as my time as a full-time sports reporter did. Added to that was the fact boxing had become a bit more sexy and other sports reporters elsewhere started to queue up for the gig.

I have continued to follow the sport, almost humorously at times.

Whenever I hear of the drama the day before a fight where one boxer threatens to pull out because of a dispute over the type of gloves being used, I can’t help but chuckle. I think of the promotional genius at work.

They are the master at getting column inches in newspapers and airtime on TV and radio.

I’ve also continued to follow Parker’s career closely. Personally, I’d be happy if he now enjoyed the fruits of his work away from the boxing ring.

He’s made his money, and probably reached his potential.

What has frustrated me over the years is suggestions Parker hasn’t lived up to some of that early hype that was built up by Duco, and to be honest the media.

I don’t buy into that.

For a lad from South Auckland to crack the top 10 in the world and fight for world titles should be celebrated.

His career earnings - including that $12.5m from the Joshua fight - suggest he has probably won in the sport.

His career has stalled, yes, but you might be waiting a while for another Kiwi heavyweight to reach his levels.

The Boxing Files

In 2020 I revisited the world of boxing as a reporter at least. We were in lockdown at the time and I thought I’d use the time to try to develop a new skill - podcasting.

I created The Boxing Files which was a three-part podcast series with interviews with Joseph Parker, David Higgins and David Nyika. While they were recorded a couple of years ago there are some classic boxing yarns that are worth a listen. Including how David Higgins put together the David Tua-Shane Cameron fight.

Joseph Parker interview:

David Higgins interview:

David Nyika interview: