I’ve fought Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, but ‘Junutadgan’ gave me my toughest fight.

Joseph Parker shared the ring with one of the greatest heavyweights of his generation – but one stood above the rest.

Kiwi entered the scene with a bang Andy Ruiz Jr for the WBO heavyweight title in 2016.

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He held onto the red and gold strap for just under two years before he came across it Anthony Joshua In a WBA, WBO and IBF unification clash at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Despite a spirited performance, Parker was outboxed by AJ from long range and lost by unanimous decision.

In the years that followed, Parker traded wins and losses with Britain’s best Derek Chisora (twice) and lost to Dillian White and Joe “Jengnut” Joyce.

His defeat at the hands of the latter was his first and to date only knockout loss in his 38-fight career (35-3).

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Parker named Joyce as his toughest opponent.

Talking about the fight during the interview in Carl Froch‘s YouTube channelHe said: It was not a good night for me, it was difficult.

“As the fight progressed, I got really sick. Too bad I shouldn’t have been fighting.

“Mentally I thought I was going to beat this guy. After one round I thought, damn, it’s not going well.

He is not the fastest and does not move the fastest. I lost pressure and was not healthy. It was hard.”

Joyce wore Parker down over 11 rounds before unleashing a big left hook to close the show.

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It was a major setback for the Oakland puncher, who was on a six-fight winning streak at the time.

However, Parker has since revived his career with a pair of notable victories Deontay Wilder and Zhili Zhangwhich has led him to fight for the IBF heavyweight title Daniel Dubois in February 22.

Parker won the WBO “interim” belt by defeating Zhang, although under the rules of the main sanctioning body, he will be stripped of the title when the opening bell rings for his next bout.

“When you have an interim champion, we don’t unify an interim champion with a legitimate champion from another organization, that’s our policy,” said newly appointed WBO president Gustavo Olivieri. talkSPORT.com last month

So what we’ve done in this case is we’ve advised Queensberry Promotions that we have no objection to Parker fighting for the IBF title.

This is a great fight. We have a good relationship with the IBF, I’m very close with its president, Daryl Piles.

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But since we have this policy, he (Parker) has to give up the title.

So probably what we will do, in consultation with the championship committee, is allow Joseph to step into the ring as the interim WBO champion and be announced as the champion.

But as soon as the bell rings to signal the start of the fight, the title should automatically be declared vacant.