Lou DiBella on Joseph Parker v Junior Fa
When thinking about big upcoming heavyweight bouts, the greater bulk of the attention has gone to WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson “Gypsy King” Fury (30-0-1, 21 KO’s) and Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KO’s) and their fall trilogy bout. Aside from them, there has been a healthy amount of talk about WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO word heavyweight champion Anthony “AJ” Joshua (23-1, 21 KO’s) taking on his IBF mandatory contender Kubrat “The Cobra” Pulev (28-1, 14 KO’s). Outside of these names, barring WBC heavyweight challenger Dillian “The Body Snatcher” Whyte (27-1, 18 KO’s), there has not been very consistent talk about the other potential match-ups in the division. This is a notion that Lou DiBella of DiBella Entertainment is actively trying to change.
BIG TALKS IN NEW ZEALAND
While others focus on the US and UK markets, DiBella is hoping to finalize a major prizefight in New Zealand. The longstanding veteran promoter hopes to put his fighter Junior Fa (19-0, 10 KO’s) in against former WBO world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (27-2, 21 KO’s).
As he told to SecondsOut, DiBella is encouraged by the fact that both men are essentially stranded in New Zealand and therefore represent that best bout that can be made for either man.
“I’m working on a big fight, a big, big, big fight in New Zealand where basically their border is closed off and they have no coronavirus. But their borders are closed off with Joseph Parker and Junior Fa in the country! So we are seeing if we can make would be a mega-fight on New Zealand pay-per-view and I am talking to Davis Higgins right now trying to see if we can make that fight happen.”
FAIR PLAYING FIELD?
Although, it would not be boxing if the behind the scenes negotiations took place without a hitch. The former creator of HBO’s Boxing After Dark series is enthusiastic about the fight ultimately coming to fruition. However, he was very candid on some of the bumps in the road that they’ve experienced thus far.
“Right now we are having a dispute because I asked for a guarantee for Junior, that I thought was very fair; it was 500,000 New Zealand dollars. But that’s between Junior and myself that’s a total of 300 US or something like that, 500 New Zealand. And by the way, I would be able to get that normally for a fight of that magnitude here; over there it’s an enormous fight!
“But I also want to participate in the pay-per-view because Joe Parker is keeping the whole gate, he’s keeping the international revenue that technically I own on Junior Fa’s fights but I mean that’s Joe’s revenue. They’re keeping the sponsorship revenue. So I have no problem with the overwhelming majority of the pay-per-view going to Parker, but not 100%!”
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Thankfully, even amidst the headaches they’ve encountered, DiBella thinks the fight will ultimately get over the line.
“I am optimistic that Higgins and I will get it done, I mean we’re going to spar some more, I’m sure he’s going to shit on me in the press again. I am going to go on New Zealand press and shit on him back, but I have a feeling that in the next week or two we should be able to make a deal.”
By: Bakari Simpson
