Joseph Parker to fight Faiga ‘Django’ Opelu for Commonwealth heavyweight title

Former world champion Joseph Parker is set to fight Faiga ‘Django’ Opelu in a twelve round bout for the Commonwealth heavyweight title on May 24th at the Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, Australia. This matchup is an odd one with Opelu being a relatively unknown fighter. Parker should be fighting contenders at this stage of his career, not obscure fighters for trinket belts.

Unbeaten junior middleweight prospect Nikita Tszyu (5-0, 4 KOs) will also be fighting Benjamin Bommber (5-0, 4 KOs) in a six round bout on the same card.

When is the fight?

The fight will take place on Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 at:

  • Eastern Time (ET) – 5am
  • Pacific Time (PT) – 2am
  • Central European Time (CET) – 11am
  • Eastern European Time (EET) – 12pm

Since losing the WBO title to Anthony Joshua in 2018, Parker has fought a series of relatively unknown fighters like Jack Massey, Derek Chisora x 2, Joe Joyce, Junior Fa, Shawndell Terrell Winters, and Alexander Flores. The only decent fighter he has faced since 2018 is Joe Joyce, and he lost that fight by an 11th round knockout. This loss was even more detrimental to Parker’s record after Joyce’s recent stoppage in the sixth round to Zhilei Zhang on April 15th.

Faiga ‘Django’ Opelu (15-3-2, 11 KOs) was knocked out by Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne in 2021 and stopped by Justis Huni in seven rounds in 2020. Opelu has even suffered an earlier defeat at the hands of Christian Ndzie Tsoye (5-5-2, 4 KOs). In light of Opelu’s record, it’s clear that this matchup is yet another confidence booster for Parker, and unfortunately, his resume has been littered with those types of opponents in the last five years.

The former WBO heavyweight champion Parker (31-3, 21 KOs) is on a decline in his career following his eleventh round knockout loss to Joe Joyce in September. With his recent fights and the upcoming matchup, it seems as if Parker is struggling with confidence. However, Parker must snap out of it fast and start fighting contenders if he wants to revive his career.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *