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Zach Parker has been the super middleweight division’s forgotten man but the 29-year-old is ready to remind everybody exactly who he is.
Parker returned from a 10-month injury lay-off to stop Khalid Gradia last September and next weekend takes his comeback to the another level. He will fight Germany’s former WBA super middleweight champion Tyron Zeuge (27-1-1, 15 KOs) as part of Queensberry’s latest Magnificent Seven show.
Until he stepped into the ring with John Ryder in November 2022, Parker (23-1, 17 KOs) was seen as one of the most-promising super middleweight prospects in the world.
A badly broken hand forced him to retire after just four rounds of the WBO interim super middleweight title fight. While Ryder went directly into a fight with undisputed 168lbs champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, the injury caused Parker to slip out of sight and out of mind.
It was the type of defeat that boxing fans use to dismiss a fighter and his long absence from the ring meant that he quickly fell off the radars of the division’s top operators, who quickly moved on and put different plans in place.
All dangerous fighters go through a period of being ignored and overlooked – as frustrating as it is, Parker will understand that time and success will remedy those issues eventually – but if his rivals are underestimating him, they may be making a big mistake.
“It does feel like I’m being underestimated a little bit,” Parker old boxingscene.com
“Inactivity hasn’t played the best part because I’ve been injured and whatnot but I’m looking to get right back in the mix. I wanna get this fight out of the way. Zeuge’s another step up and I don’t wanna be fighting nobodies anymore, I want to be in with the top lads, do a job on Tyron Zeuge and get my name right back up there.”
Parker hasn’t spent the past 18 months waiting for his name to be called. Rather than sitting idly, Parker spent the time examining every aspect of his training.
As a list of niggles and injuries healed, he studied the way he gets his 6ft frame down to 168lbs and looked at how he rests and recovers. After nine years as a professional, Parker feels like he now knows exactly what his body needs to perform at its best.
Although he is back to full fitness and enjoying his time in the gym, Parker is also a father and the time he spent out of the ring hammered home to him the fact that – first and foremost – he is a prizefighter.
He is entering the most important part of his career in the best physical and mental shape of his life.
“You get wiser as you get older and go through things in life,” he said. “You find better ways to do things. When you’re a bit younger you can get away with cutting the odd corner but as you get older you can’t. You have to make sure every stone is turned. That’s where I feel like I am in my career. Hopefully these next few years are the best of my life in boxing terms and I’ve got to make the most of them.
“This boxing game isn’t a long career and it can be even shorter if you get injured. I genuinely feel like I’m just coming into my prime. Having a family, you think about your life a bit more. I’ve got people who depend on me now. You properly switch on.”
Parker has served a long apprenticeship and he and his team believe that his performance against Zeuge will prove he is now more than ready for the type of opportunities that can change the life of he and his family.
Since his return to action, Parker’s manager Neil Marsh has been turning over stones looking for those openings and over the past few months, Parker has been close to securing fights with some of the best operators in the super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. He has said ‘Yes’ to everybody from Dmitrii Bivol and David Morrell to Diego Pacheco and Anthony Yarde. For the time being, boxing politics has prevented the fights from progressing beyond the negotiating table, but at least Parker’s name is back in the mix.
“I wanna be in with the top guys. I want world title fights,” he said. “I have to get through these kind of fights but I wanna do it with flying colours. You see the likes of David Benavidez, those are the type of fights that I want. Look at what the people in Saudi Arabia are doing, too. That’s becoming the new mecca of boxing but that comes later. I need to put on a big statement and a big performance this weekend first. I’m looking forward to what comes after that.”