Parker won’t underestimate Fury in title defence

MANCHESTER: New Zealand’s Joseph Parker insists he won’t underestimate Hughie Fury in Saturday’s (tomorrow’s) world heavyweight title fight in Manchester.

Parker, 25, is making his second WBO title defence against a challenger who hasn’t boxed for 17 months.

Fury, cousin of controversial former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, has been sidelined by a skin condition that left him too tired to train and then a back injury, which caused the fight with Parker to be postponed from May.But Parker insists Fury could still pose a major threat and vowed to be at his best as he looks to make his name in the United Kingdom with a strong performance.

“I knew he hasn’t been in the ring for a while but we expect him to come out strong,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.“I think we can adjust and adapt when the fight happens. I feel like the UK is where the heavyweight scene is at and I want to be a part of it.

“I need to make a statement and there’s no better way to do it than fighting a younger, hungry fighter like Hughie Fury.“In the future, you will see me a lot more in the UK. The training camp was the hard work and now I’m looking forward to getting my reward.”

Tyson Fury won the WBO, WBA and IBF belts with a surprise points win over Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015.He has not boxed since but was at Thursday’s press conference, where Hughie vowed to emulate his relative by pulling off a shock win of his own.

“You can look at previous fights but no one will have seen what I’m going to bring because this is a new Hughie Fury,” he said. “When I say I’m going to knock him out, I’m going to knock him out.”Only 5,000 tickets had been sold for the fight earlier in the week and it is being screened on YouTube rather than by television companies.