{"id":454613,"date":"2025-09-27T05:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T05:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/454613\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T05:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T05:43:14","slug":"joseph-parker-names-only-opponent-he-ever-disliked-wanted-to-smash-his-face-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/454613\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Parker names only opponent he ever disliked: ‘Wanted to smash his face in’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Parker has had a turbulent relationship with Dillian Whyte over the years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While they are on good terms now, New Zealand’s archetypal nice guy admits there have been times when he wanted to ‘smash Whyte’s face in’.<\/p>\n

\"Whyte<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Whyte and Parker haven’t always seen eye to eyeCredit: GettyJoseph Parker names the only opponent he ever disliked: ‘Wanted to smash his face in’<\/p>\n

“The only opponent I didn’t like was Dillian Whyte<\/a>,” Parker told talkSPORT.com.<\/p>\n

“One moment we’re good and then we’re not. I’m not sure what is up with him; he is up and down.<\/p>\n

“After his last fight [with Moses Itauma], I gave him a call and we had a chat.<\/p>\n

“But sometimes he sends me a rude message, like I’d write ‘How are you?’ and he’d reply ‘f*** you’.<\/p>\n

“So there have been a fair few times where I have disliked him and wanted to smash his face in.<\/p>\n

“And then there are other times when I have thought he isn’t a bad guy.<\/p>\n

“It’s up and down, but at the moment we are mates, I think.”<\/p>\n

Their relationship reached boiling point in the build-up to their showdown at London’s O2 Arena in July 2018.<\/a><\/p>\n

Parker took exception to some comments made by Whyte during a tense pre-fight ‘Gloves Are Off’ interview.<\/p>\n

‘The Bodysnatcher’ branded the Kiwi a ‘coward’, and insisted he had ‘let his country down’ in defeat to Anthony Joshua<\/a> four months prior.<\/p>\n

\"Whyte<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Whyte dropped Parker twice before being knocked down himselfCredit: GETTY\"Whyte<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Whyte was forced to go down in the last roundCredit: GETTY<\/p>\n

Whyte’s words lit a fire under Parker<\/a>, leading to a barnburning bout, which saw both men exchange three knockdowns between them.<\/p>\n

In the 12th and final round, with 27 seconds left on the clock, Parker decked Whyte with a dynamite right hand.<\/p>\n

When he regained his footing, Parker poured on the pressure like a man possessed.<\/p>\n

But the Londoner held for dear life to hear the final bell.<\/p>\n

It was a sound that came as a massive relief to the pro-Whyte crowd and proved enough for the Brit to get his hand raised.<\/p>\n

In the end, the judges scored the fight 114-110, 115-110 and 113-112 in Whyte’s favour to seal a hard-fought unanimous decision victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joseph Parker has had a turbulent relationship with Dillian Whyte over the years. While they are on good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[5060,1935,4496,47963,25204,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-454613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-anthony-joshua","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-boxing-news","11":"tag-dillian-whyte","12":"tag-joseph-parker","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115274672837133270","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}