THE PRO record is 20-0 with all 20 wins coming inside two rounds.
As an amateur, he was 20-0 – all by knockout.
So, who is Craig Parker? And why isn’t he your favourite fighter? And how come the 34-year-old cruiserweight from Las Vegas is fighting in the Midlands soon?
Parker is trained by Hall of Famer Jesse Reid, whose relationship with Midlands promoter Scott Murray goes back to 1988, when Reid took Frank Tate to defend his IBF middleweight title against Tony Sibson in Stafford.
Reid and Tate used a local amateur gym where Murray was training as a base in the buildup to the 10-round KO.
Fast-forward more than three decades and Reid plans to return to the area with Parker.
He is set to box in Cannock on September 13 when Murray promotes a show that also features Sam Eggington.
Parker has previously boxed in Mexico (seven times) and Colombia (twice), as well as around the United States, in a pro career that started in September 2018. Now, he’s looking forward to making his UK debut.
Parker was in London for Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn in April and says of the experience: “From doorman to cab driver, everyone knew boxing. I thought, ‘This is where I want to be’.”
But where he really wants to be is in the opposite corner to Jake Paul.
Parker got a nasty surprise the other week when he woke up to discover he had dropped a place in the WBA ratings.
He had been No.14 – until Jake Paul outpointed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Parker fumes: “I feel like it’s a slap in the face for me.
“I woke up one day and found Jake Paul above me in the rankings. It’s disgusting.
“I have to put a stop to this and get back to real boxing.
“What he [Paul] is doing is not good for boxing. He’s a great promoter; he is drawing eyes to boxing and there are great fights on his undercards, but he’s not a good boxer and definitely not world-class material.
“It’s about respect. He has no respect for boxing and its traditions. He treats boxing like it’s YouTube.
“Guys who are up and coming put a lot of hard work into this. I’ve slept on couches, walked to the gym and been out running in the cold and rain. Every sacrifice you can make I made it. I started at the bottom, like everyone else, and had my ups and downs.
“I thought they [Paul’s fights] were exhibitions and then they throw him into the world rankings and say he could fight for a world title when he’s nowhere near that level.”
Parker wasn’t impressed with Paul’s unanimous points win over Chavez in Anaheim last month.
“Chavez had been inactive,” he says, “and if you stay away from anything for that long, it’s tough. Jake has been active. If Chavez had fought two or three times this year, he would have beaten him in the first round. I got the feeling Chavez just wanted it over with.
“Now he [Paul] is calling out [WBC champion] Badou Jack when he knows he has a rematch [with Norair Mikaeljan after a majority points win in Riyadh in May].
“He’s calling out Anthony Joshua as well, and Joshua would annihilate him. That would not be a matchup. The same with me and him.
“I’m ready to stop it all. I’m going to put an end to Jake Paul.”
Parker has made short work of everyone he’s faced so far, but to the wider public he is best known for sparring Roy Jones Jr before the latter’s exhibition against Mike Tyson in November 2020.
Asked which of his sparring partners most resembled Tyson, Jones answered: “Parker.”
Parker says: “He [Tyson] was someone I looked up to.
“I think we would have a lot in common. We came up different, but share some of the same moments.
“My nickname is ‘Pressure’ because I grew up in a tough neighbourhood in poverty.
“When you’re in the ring, you have to make adjustments quickly under pressure and that reminds me of being a kid and being bullied and being around things you can get involved in.
“You have to make adjustments in life to make sure you don’t go down the wrong road.
“Every day you’re under pressure. You can get into wrong things. You have to learn to adjust to things really quick.
“When you’re in a ring, you’re under pressure, and I’m used to it.
“I can box, I can do whatever it takes to win. I can box backwards, I can box around.”
And he can punch.
“My gameplan is getting in there and getting the job done,” says Parker, who grew up in Chicago and now lives in Rockhill, South Carolina. “When I hit them, that’s all she wrote.
“I want people to watch and enjoy my fights. This is the hurt business. It’s not a game.”
Parker has studied Tyson since he started boxing.
“My friend was doing community service at a boxing gym after getting into trouble,” he remembers.
“I went to his house to hang around with him and he said: ‘I’ve got to go and do community service at a local boxing gym.’
“I went there with him and they asked me to spar. I didn’t know what sparring was! I said: ‘It’s OK, I’m good.’
“I had a background in playing football, basketball and wrestling, but didn’t know anything about boxing.
“The coach said: ‘This guy said something about your mother’ and that didn’t get under my skin.
“He didn’t know I got picked on when I was a kid. I was like the lion from The Wizard of Oz. I had the build from being a footballer and wrestler, but I didn’t have the heart. I didn’t have the fight in me.
“The coach and my friend ended up convincing me to get in the ring and I was just trying to protect myself. We probably did four or five rounds and when I got out of the ring I looked in the mirror and I had two black eyes.
“The coach said: ‘If you come in every day, we will teach you how to beat him.’
“I went in every day.
“The coach told me to look at fighters like Tyson, [Joe] Frazier, [Dwight Muhammad] Qawi and [Bert] Cooper; guys who come forward with their hands up.”
Parker has quickly ploughed through every opponent put in front of him since he started competing.
“Right from the start, I was a knockout specialist,” he says.
For all his KOs, he’s been boxing under the radar since turning over in September 2018.
Reid hinted to Boxing News there had been some friction between himself, Parker and a sponsor over the choice of opponents, but that has been settled and Reid and Parker have been reunited in Las Vegas and are looking to push on.
“He’s been around the fight game a long time,” says Parker of Reid.
“You get rough times in boxing that can take a lot out of you, but Jesse still has that passion and love for what he does.”
Now 82, Reid says: “People don’t know him, but Craig is vicious and he’s dedicated. He’s clean-living.
“You see a lot of jabs and body punches from him. I know he will be my 32nd world champion.”
