White socks, 2pm breakfasts & stopping Dubois jab – inside Parker's camp
Having breakfast at 14:00, wearing white socks to improve speed and targeting the jab - these are just few of the things Joseph Parker is doing in his aim to dethrone IBF heavyweight world champion Daniel Dubois.The New Zealander targets becoming a two-time heavyweight champion when he faces Briton Dubois on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.The 33-year-old is on a five-fight winning streak and his head coach Andy Lee spoke to the 5 Live Boxing with Steve Bunce podcast about changes that have inspired the run of form."Joe used to always wear black socks," revealed Lee. "Manny (Emanuel Steward) always used to say wear white socks, white boots. When you wear white boots you feel faster."The last time Parker wore black socks in a fight was during his 2021 win over Junior Fa, but wore a combination of white socks and black boots for his last contest against Zhilei Zhang 11 months ago.Lee, who was trained by coaching great Steward as a fighter himself, joined Parker's team after the Fa bout.The Kiwi is the underdog against Dubois, who has won his last three fights by knockout.Dubois, 27, has bounced back from a heartbreak loss by Oleksandr Usyk in 2023 and is one win away from potentially facing the Ukrainian again, this time in an undisputed bout.Lee said the Londoner may be a big puncher, but his jab is his strongest weapon."You have to make it his biggest weakness, you have to make him uncertain and hesitant in throwing it," added Lee."That means stepping back from it, taking the range away, slipping inside, stepping outside and countering it, that's where I think the fight will be won and lost."We've trained every day in trying to take the jab away from Dubois and if we can, that will go a long way to Joe winning the fight."
Dubois favourite 'but that suits us'
Parker and Dubois have both bounced back from bruising losses in their careers.Wins over Deontay Wilder and China's Zhang have made Parker the in-form heavyweight, alongside Dubois who stopped Anthony Joshua and Filip Hrgovic in 2024.For Parker, it has been a near seven-year quest to become a world champion again, having lost his WBO belt to Joshua in 2018.It will be his fourth bout in a row in Riyadh and will fight close to 01:00 local time, so the card is at a friendly time for UK and US audiences.Parker's nutritionist George Lockhart explained how the timings have a huge impact on preparation."We don't go to bed till 5,6 in the morning," he said."Parker doesn't have breakfast until 2pm and that's to get his circadian rhythm rocking and rolling."While they continue to tweak aspects of camp, Lee said they have "worked extremely hard" to iron out "bad habits" of Parker's game and the biggest change has been to his boxer's concentration."Before his time with me he would take a lot of breaks in fights - physical breaks, mental breaks - and he would go through a round just going from moment to moment, not being present," added Lee."Most people probably have Dubois as the favourite and there's already talk of him fighting Usyk, but it suits us down to the ground."
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