There's nothing quite like watching Joe Parker lip-syncing to Take That to lift the mood in the back of an Uber on a drizzly morning in Dublin. The dangerous threat Parker faces against another big-hitting monster of the ring in Daniel Dubois, in Riyadh on Saturday, fades with the laughter. Even the depressing reality that boxing will continue to ignore human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, as Parker's intriguing bout with Dubois headlines an outstanding bill bankrolled by the country's General Entertainment Authority, can't erode the charm of the New Zealand heavyweight channelling his inner Gary Barlow.
It's a long drive from the heart of Dublin to the Ballybrack Boxing Club, where Parker has prepared for Dubois, and so I watch the video the fighter made last April. In December 2023 Parker had outclassed Deontay Wilder, a knockout merchant expected to crush him, and he was looking for a new opponent. Settling on Dillian Whyte, against whom he had lost a slugfest in 2018, Parker created an amusing parody of the usual abusive call-out.
Rather than being belligerent or crude, Parker pretended to croon his way into Whyte's heart by serenading him to the strains of Take That's Back for Good. Featuring framed photographs of Whyte, and lipstick-stained mugs, Parker and his crew of South Auckland homeboys shuffled and sang their seemingly love-struck lament as a way of trying to set up a rematch. Those few minutes captured the essence of Parker.
Hearing about this diversion on my way to see him, Parker exclaims happily soon after I step into the gym. "That's my favourite," he says of the Whyte spoof which belongs to an entertaining collection of videos Parker began making during Covid lockdowns with his wife, Laine, and their children in 2020. Laine was initially dubious but the videos became an internet sensation and she joined him in making them - including her as Olivia Newton-John to his John Travolta in their version of Grease.
This story is from the February 18, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the February 18, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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