By Chris Barclay

Joseph Parker stops at the resting place of Sonny Liston, the heavyweight champion who was brought to his knees outside the ring.

Liston's unexceptional grave marker at the Davis Memorial Park's Garden of Peace in Las Vegas has one distinguishing characteristic - tradition dictates those paying their respects leave a quarter-dollar coin.

The New Zealand heavyweight performs that ritual as a procession of planes approach McCarran International - the Garden of Peace is ironically situated on Eastern Avenue, adjacent to a runway.

Unlike Parker's visit to the graveside of another former champion, Joe Frazier, in Philadelphia nearly two years ago, the experience was a timely reminder of the importance of being surrounded - and influenced - by the right people.

Officially Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure, but an autopsy revealed traces of morphine and codeine in his bloodstream. An arm had fresh needle tracks; marijuana, heroin and a syringe were found near his body - rumours persist a man with underworld associates was killed by the Mafia. There are also claims Liston overdosed on heroin sold to him by a bebop trumpeter called "The Red Arrow".

He was discovered in a Las Vegas apartment on January 5, 1971, more than 21 years before Parker was born, but for the South Aucklander Liston's demise was a reality check.

"You have to have the right people around you to give you the right advice and guide you the right way. Like we see with Sonny, we're not sure how he died, maybe it was an overdose, maybe someone drugged him. No one knows the story," he says.

Parker, meanwhile, is determined there will be no conjecture, no second guessing at the end of a boxing career guided by Kevin Barry, a polarising figure in the Samoan community.

The legal wrangling between Barry and David Tua was topical once Parker turned professional and wanted to be trained by the Las Vegas-based Cantabrian.

"It wasn't a hard decision to make, it was easy because I wanted to improve my boxing," said Parker, as he prepares for a July 21 fight with Solomon Haumono in Christchurch.

Just two fights into their union, Barry knew Parker was in his corner during a promotional visit to Dunedin after Francois Botha was knocked out in 2013.

"One guy bellowed out 'Barry, are you going to give Tua his money back?'. Joe walked over to the fence and just yelled at the guy. He was protective of me, which I was a little flattered by," he says.

Barry, naturally. calls the shots, though Parker has the final word in one respect: he vows to quit at age 31 or 32, based on past and current experience.

"What I've told my team is when they see I've been taking a lot of punches or I start slurring my words, it's time for me to stop," he said.

Liston is not the only stark reminder of mortality in Las Vegas. When the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame had its first induction ceremony in 2013 opened in Parker remembers watching a punch-drunk Leon Spinks struggle to work the room.

And on June 3, Muhammad Ali died, a shadow of his former self, his frame wracked by Parkinson's disease - Parker's dream is to fight at the MGM Grand, where Mike Tyson currently has a stand-up routine where he charts his controversial career.

During Undisputed Truth a self-deprecating Tyson tells how he squandered or had stolen a staggering US$400,000,000.

One of Parker's favourite fighters, Roy Jones Junior, continues to cause self-inflicted damage by boxing on at 47.

A middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight champion rated the 1990s fighter of the decade by the Boxing Writer's Association of America, Jones fought as recently as March 20, when he beat debutant Vyron Philips by TKO at the nondescript Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jones started started his 72-bout professional career in 1989 when he beat Ricky Randall by TKO in Pensacola, Florida and was dominant until he lost to Antonio Tarver (twice) and Glen Johnson in 2004-05.

"He was a champion, in his prime he was unstoppable," Parker lamented. "He kept fighting, and just kept losing. He kept getting knocked out. It's sort of ruined his legacy."

And, potentially, his health. So Parker's plan is to quit, ideally undefeated, and return to the building industry.

Or maybe he'll buy a boat and run it as a charter in the Hauraki Gulf. Either way, a solid foundation. Plain sailing.