By Duncan Johnstone

New Zealand heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker sees Kali Meehan's size and experience as an ideal test to his world title aspirations.

The 45-year-old Meehan was confirmed as Parker's next opponent with an October 15 date set for west Auckland, Meehan's old home patch.

Now living in Australia, Meehan brings a 42-5 win-loss record to the ring with his last two outings in Auckland showing he has lost little of his class or skills. He won the inaugural Super 8 tournament and then comprehensively out-pointed Shane Cameron for bonus pay days late in his career and, importantly for him, some belated respect.

While promoters Duco Events have produced a dream home ticket, the Parker camp see benefits deeper than that.

"There's a lot of talk about the size of the guys in the rankings ahead of us, so to fight a guy of Kali's height and size is a perfect fit for us," Parker's trainer Kevin Barry said at a media conference in Auckland.

The top of the division is dominated by giants like champions Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder and Parker needs to get comfortable with bigger opponents.

Parker acknowledged that as he gets set to give away 3cm in height and 13cm in reach to Meehan.

"Kali is an ideal fight right now. He brings a long reach, plenty of height and a lot of experience," the 23-year-old Parker, fresh of his first round knockout of Bowie Tupou.

Parker will holiday in Queenstown for the next four days before returning to Las Vegas for an intense training camp.

"We have got a lot of hard work ahead of us. I've seen what he brings and we are going to have to work on a game plan to counter that. We are going to have to work on different combinations because of his size and reach.

"In the past I have found I got quite tired punching upwards, so that's something we'll need to look at and we will have to find tall sparring partners."

Meehan revealed he had signed the fight deal six weeks ago and was well into his strength and conditioning work.

"I have to thank Duco … there's been no tricks or sly ones … they have given me a lot of time to prepare," he said

Meehan arrived in good condition for his last two Auckland appearances and will surely front that way again given the significance of this fight which he has hinted will be his last.

Meehan used a clever mix of power and ring craft to get the better of Cameron who had been on Parker's radar. He will need all of his guile against the fast-rising Parker whose speed and movement will be the younger fighter's advantage areas as well as a punch that is earning increasing respect.

There will be five belts on the line but Meehan, who has been ranked No 1 with the WBA and fought for the WBO heavyweight tile in 2004 losing a controversial split decision to American Lamon Brewster, said that wasn't a motivation.

"Rankings don't mean anything, winning is everything," he said.

He had followed Parker's rise and was impressed.

"Joe is on a roll right now, he doesn't know how to lose," Meehan smiled.

He said Parker's result against Tupou "didn't surprise me" because of the Kiwi's speed and fitness and the division's history of "flush" punches finishing off fighters.

Parker was also happy to further explain the knockout of Tupou that happened so quickly it deceived many observers.

Parker suggested the person most deceived was Tupou.

"It's the one you don't expect that knocks you out," Parker said of managing to counter the charging Tupou with the perfect connection.

Parker said he and Barry had practiced that exact punch often in their camp for the Tupou fight and to pull it out in the heat of battle had encouraged him.

"He was on the attack not expecting one to come back."

Barry said that outside of David Tua, Meehan was "one of the most accomplished fighters New Zealand has produced."

Meehan had appeared on several of Barry's early cards when he was promoting in New Zealand before the trainer shifted to the United States. Vegas-based Barry had watched the Brewster fight and was in no doubt that the referee had done Meehan no favours and denied him his place in New Zealand sporting history.

"I have so much respect for Kali Meehan. He's a big man with a very good right hand who comfortably beat Shane Cameron," Barry said.

"We wanted Shane Cameron for Joe. Now we are fighting the man that beat Shane."