What’s next for Canelo, Joseph Parker, Junior Fa, Zhang and others?

Another weekend in boxing ended, with Canelo Alvarez returning to a predictably simple victory over Avni Yildirim in the main event.

And now for Canelo, Joseph Parker and the rest?

Canelo Alvarez

We usually have to guess, even if the guesses are informed, even if we “know” what is coming for someone.

Not this time. We to meet what comes next for Canelo (55-1-2, 37 KO’s), as it was officially announced that the WBC and WBA super middleweight championship will unify against WBO holder Billy Joe Saunders, May 8 on DAZN. There’s even a trailer!

As we already discussed in an attempt to get through Canelo-Yildirim quickly and go for something more interesting, this is a much better fight than Yildirim would ever be. Saunders is the most ready for this type of fight, he’s a veteran, he’s been in the world championship for years, it’s time to do that. And the hope is that, with just six months between his victory over Martin Murray and the next fight, he will not be terribly out of shape and will have to dedicate himself as much, if not more, time to his weight in boxing at camp.

Saunders is no joke, he is not a vagabond fighter, he is in the top five at 168 years old and he is as good an opponent as Mexican superstar weight by weight now. Yes, Canelo will be the favorite and clearly, but that will be the case against anyone at 168 for a while.

Joseph Parker

Greg Bowker photo / Getty Images

Listen, I don’t think Joseph Parker set anyone’s world on fire with his victory in Auckland over Junior Fa. It was a competitive fight, certainly much closer than the judge who saw 119-109 saw, but he was the favorite and basically just took care of business. Fa had his moments. Parker was better.

Parker (28-2, 21 KO) is a good fighter. At 29, he’s still too young for a heavyweight, but you can really argue that we’ve seen the same Joseph Parker since 2016, when he stepped up his competition and had his year highlighted. And that year we saw him fight Carlos Takam, whose tactical choices may have cost that fight more than anything else, and win a majority decision over Andy Ruiz Jr to win the vacant WBO belt, a fight that probably would have gone to Ruiz the fight was in the United States. (Parker’s victory was not a theft, but it was very close, and being at home in New Zealand probably helped enough.)

He has almost the same strength as he did then. He has the same flaws we saw against Takam or Ruiz, or his victory over Hughie Fury in 2017, or defeats to Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte in 2018.

Parker is in the top 10 heavyweights, perhaps in the top 10, and is a solid candidate. He is a very good versatile fighter, with no “plus-plus” attributes for his game.

So, what’s next? I’m guessing it’s Derek Chisora. This fight was supposed to happen in 2019, it didn’t happen, and now it’s been back on everyone’s mind for a while, with both sides openly interested, even before the Fa fight. Two days before the fight, Parker himself said that is what he wants next, a chance for the winner of the possible interim title fight Oleksandr Usyk vs. Joe Joyce WBO.

Others

Ed Mulholland / Matchroom

• Next to Avni Yildirim? I do not know. Perhaps a rematch with Anthony Dirrell, who fought for a draw with Kyrone Davis on Saturday? This is the highest he can hope for. Yildirim is 29 years old and is the fighter he is, and if what we saw on Saturday were his “transformations” and “improvements”, he may want to go back to the old days. He is a second- or third-tier middleweight, who had no real business in the ring with Canelo Alvarez. Listen, it wasn’t that this was a terrible ranking or mandatory sanction order, because it really wasn’t. Guys at the Yildirim level (21-3, 12 KO) get high rankings all the time. There are many of them now – look at the ratings of any approval body and scratch your head if you want to be sure of that. But they are rarely put in a fight with a genuine superstar that everyone pays attention to, and that’s what happened here. Many more people noticed this than usual. I am not saying that this will change anything. Nothing really changes in boxing. Sometimes, change is praised, that’s all.
• Although Parker’s fight was Junior Fa’s first chance for a real break as a professional, he is 31 and a big setback for any hope he had of being a great candidate. Fa (19-1, 10 KO) will have to go back to the drawing board for a while, but realistically he is a finished product for the most part. A domestic fight with Hemi Ahio (17-0, 12 KO’s) can be interesting and sell some tickets in Auckland. Other than that, there is a lot of ground to travel between the guys he beat, like Devin Vargas and former Dominick Guinn, and the guy he just lost to Parker.
• McWilliams Arroyo will obviously target Julio Cesar Martinez, who dropped out of the fight on Thursday. Arroyo (21-4, 16 KO) has to move on and fight the short-term enemy, Abraham Rodriguez, and he hit a stoppage victory for the provisional WBC flyweight title. Martinez still has the real thing, and that’s what Arroyo wants next. I expected that to happen.
• There is a clear reason why Zhilei Zhang, 37 (22-0-1, 17 KO) was never taken very seriously by boxing fans, despite being huge, having some skills and winning a silver medal in 2008 Olympics. Jerry Forrest exposed Zhang’s relatively low ceiling, leaving the screen three times and forcing a tie when Zhang died of gas after the third assault. Forrest (26-4-1, 20 KO’s) is a type of solid and heavy gatekeeper, it can be a problem for prospects and even veterinarians who need a test. He is strong and has some skills; he is someone where i think if he had received the prospective treatment turning professional, he could be in a world title fight right now. Zhang could fight back with Forrest, but will he want it, and will Matchroom want something to do with it? There is yet money in Zhang hosting Anthony Joshua or someone in China.