By Cliff Rold

There’s been plenty written in the last couple of years about a change at heavyweight. Slowly little pieces were falling into place but an injury here…a layoff there…some promotional issues…change was coming about as quickly as winter in Westeros.

Luckily for us, it turns out the winter of our discontent was more television Westeros than George Martin-might-never-finish-those-books-Westeros.

In 2015, Tyson Fury’s upset of Wladimir Klitschko ended one of history’s longest reigns. It wasn’t a great fight but Fury’s personality promised to be a breath of fresh air. Fast forward to 2017. The promise of Fury’s victory was fulfilled by another UK native.

IBF/WBA titlist Anthony Joshua is more than a breath of fresh air at heavyweight. He’s on the verge of global heavyweight stardom the like of which we haven’t seen in a long time. It wasn’t just that he defeated Wladimir Klitschko last weekend. Joshua’s win was gritty, thrilling, and conclusive. The fight was the best high profile heavyweight scrap in over a decade. Outlets that rarely talk boxing were talking about Joshua-Klitschko. Highlights were still playing on various ESPN shows on Monday.

Call it the heavyweight effect, call it the branches of the Joshua tree; it’s no matter.

Joshua-Klitschko is history. What comes next is the story. The sport was never able to capitalize on Fury’s win over Klitschko. It can get it right this time.

Welcome to one week later.

While it won’t, at least as yet, have scheduled US TV air, one of the critical players in heavyweight’s future is in the ring this weekend.

Fresh off a competitive win over Andy Ruiz for the vacant WBO belt in December, New Zealand’s Joseph Parker (22-0, 18 KO) is preparing for his first defense. The spotlight was supposed to be a little brighter. Parker was slated to face the cousin of (the still lineal champion) Tyson Fury, Hughie, in what looked like an interesting fight on paper.

Hughie Fury pulled out of the fight with an injury a couple of weeks ago, leaving Parker to scramble to fill a home court bill. Now Parker will make his first defense against Razvan Cojanu (16-2, 9 KO). Like Fury and many of the other top heavyweights out there including Joshua and WBC titlist Deontay Wilder, Cojanu is a tall man. Standing 6’7, US fans will remember him for losing by knockout to Donovan Dennis in the 2015 of Boxcino.

As far as late replacement opponents go, he was available.

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This weekend, Parker serves himself well not just by winning but winning in style. Even without TV, any knockouts will be available quickly on YouTube. It will get around. Parker first captured international attention with an aggressive style and a string of knockouts. As he has progressed, we’ve seen him boxing more, pressing less, and gaining weight. He’s gone from consistently being in the high 220’s and 230’s to weighing in the 240’s for each of his last two fights.

At 25 and standing 6’4, he might still be settling into his best weight. Against Ruiz, he looked a hair slower than he did a couple years ago. It’s hard not to think of another promising puncher from New Zealand whose weight ballooned just when it looked like he was ready to enter the fray with the very best. One hopes it’s not a red flag. It was for David Tua.

This is a critical time for Parker and how he fares could mean a lot to whether we really do have a blossoming era versus a new kingdom with a sole ruler in Joshua. The second the Joshua-Klitschko fight was waved off, one could see the line forming already.

There are times in boxing when top fighters are all comfortable making their own pools of money without each other. Those times are punctuated by a lack of a central magnet, a drawing force that brings a reward always worth the risk. Fighters might avoid someone like Gennady Golovkin.

They never avoid a Ray Leonard or an Oscar De La Hoya. 

Joshua isn’t just the perceived top of the class in the ring. He’s the rainmaker now, capable of packing stadiums and selling pay-per-view in his home country with an eye on multi-national expansion. It’s not about whether everyone is going to want to fight him.

It’s about creating a position where a fighter can add some value to the showdown to make it bigger.

Parker looked like he might be in a position to challenge Joshua late last year. When the WBO belt opened up, he opted for Ruiz. With that win, he made himself part of a unification fight with any other titlist down the line. There is inherent value there.

Where does that value get cashed in first? Can he build it more and stay in line?

This week, Wilder has been tweeting about facing Parker. The design is clear. If Parker or Wilder can pick up another belt, they turn a showdown with Joshua into a battle that can by hyped as truly for all the marbles. Wilder-Parker makes a lot of sense for both men. It’s another byproduct of having a rainmaker around.

It seems to make everyone take a few more risks. During the 1990s, men like Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, and Riddick Bowe didn’t just take tough fights against the biggest names. They mixed in a pool that included Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison, and Razor Ruddock. The biggest prize for all, whether he had a belt or not, whether he was out of jail or not, was Mike Tyson.

The jockeying for position, even when one didn’t have a belt in that mix, made for a memorable era. Joshua and Wilder do have belts. What they don’t have is an instant inside track to Joshua. Joshua has mandatories possible with Luis Ortiz and Kubrat Pulev; a rematch clause Klitschko can call in; and the biggest money fight in the division right now if Tyson Fury can get himself back in the ring.

That might seem like an obstacle to fans. For the fighters, it’s an opportunity. Their best chance at a Joshua fight is probably sometime in 2018. It puts time on their side in the process of building any showdown from a big fight into a superfight.

Parker’s best foot needs to come forward now. This is heavyweight, one week later. It’s a whole new ball game.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com