By Bryce Wilson

BoxingScene caught up with Joseph Parker’s trainer, Kevin Barry as Barry and Parker were reaching the end of the second week in camp preparing for their epic Heavyweight Unification showdown with Anthony Joshua on March 31st.

We chatted about how the first couple of weeks of training had gone, as well as the tough negotiations leading up to the fight being signed, as well as Barry’s assessment of Anthony Joshua after their first chance to meet him face to face.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: Kevin how is everything going in camp? Do you like what you’ve seen so far from Joseph in the very early stages of your preparation?

BARRY: It couldn’t have gone any better. As you know I’ve been working with Joe since 2013 and this will be our 19th camp together and this is by far the best start we’ve ever had. And that is because I believe that Joseph Parker understands the significance of this fight, for his career, because of the history involved. It’s the first heavyweight unification fight between unbeaten champions in many years. Joe is giving me his absolute best work and I am giving him mine. Frankly speaking Joseph needed a fight like this.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: You’ve made no secret of the fact that the last few performances from Joseph have been a little lackluster…………

BARRY: Yes, they have, and we’re not interested in making excuses but there are some explanations behind it. When our team first started negotiating with Hughie Fury’s camp for our mandatory defence it was fairly evident there was a lot of miscommunication between both sides. When Fury pulled out from the fight with a back issue and we had Cojanu as a late replacement I said to Joe that he didn’t need to take that fight. However, Joe was keen to move forward and face Cojanu in order to keep his activity up. The problem being that fighting against an opponent that you have sparred so many rounds against, an opponent that knows all your moves and your rhythm, it’s hard to look good against a guy like that. And as for the Fury fight when it eventually happened, it’s true we wanted a devastating performance but it’s so difficult to look good against either one of the Fury’s. Hughie moved so much in that fight, I’m not sure any heavyweight would’ve caught up with him that night.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: I understand that when you finally got to the UK for that fight there were difficulties as well?

BARRY: Yes, there were a lot of fun and games which led to many distractions. Let me give you one example; on the day Joseph, my son Taylor and I were set to fly to London we didn’t know right up until the moment we arrived at the airport whether we would be flying. They hadn’t even confirmed whether the plane tickets had been booked for us. We suffered similar problems when we arrived at the hotel and so on and so forth. They played a lot of games with us and the team learned a lot. By the end of the fight I think there was some healthy respect between both camps, but they certainly looked for every advantage they could take leading into the fight.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: It seems like at these initial stages Eddie Hearn has been much easier to do business with and he and David Higgins have even formed a nice little chemistry with their back and forth banter in the press.

BARRY: Correct, Eddie Hearn is a classy guy to do business with. It was a tough negotiation and he and David Higgins certainly had their moments but at the end of the day he gave us a great deal and I believe genuinely wants to make the biggest fights out there. David Higgins has been a champion for our team and hasn’t been afraid to take a lot of heat from the media and many of Joshua’s fans, but I think at the end of the day Eddie Hearn appreciates the way he has hustled for his fighter.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: The negotiations featured some aggressive tactics from your team which was, to some extent, out of character for you guys.

BARRY: Let me tell you something, when this fight was first being discussed Eddie Hearn said to us it had to be at the O2 as Joseph’s profile simply wasn’t big enough in the UK to merit a larger arena. We knew if we wanted to make it a bigger venue then we would have to make some noise and get Joe noticed by the public. I think we did that and I think it has been proven by the speed with which tickets sold out for this event. Obviously, Joshua is the big draw-card we are not denying that, but I believe a lot more people in the UK are now aware of Joe and are looking forward to the fight.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: You’ve been involved in another big heavyweight title fight, managing David Tua when he challenged Lennox Lewis way back in 2000. Is there anything you take from that experience?

BARRY: I was discussing this the other day with my son Taylor who works as my assistant trainer and I was saying to him that at the time I was trying so hard to be the best manager I could be in some ways I missed the joy of the whole experience. So, I’ve told him, and Joseph as well, that as a team we must enjoy this whole experience, that we must soak it up and embrace it and have fun with it. But I’ve also said that it’s important that we continue to stick with what works for us, that we keep our structures in place and treat that as we would any other fight. Obviously the closer we get to the fight the more challenging that will be.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: And already one of those challenges I imagine is the number of requests you’ve had from UK media?

BARRY: Yes, we’ve already had two sets of TV crews out from the UK and more will be coming soon. The UK media have really taken to Joe’s personality, out of the ring he’s a nice guy and they have certainly picked up on that. However, I’m also not afraid to be the bad guy and if I need to get them out of the gym so that we stick to our training schedule then I’m happy to do it.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: As I mentioned part of the challenge of getting this fight made was to call out Anthony Joshua’s chin. I personally found it strange that he went into so much detail about those knockdowns during your first press conference together. I asked Joseph about it and I’ll ask you as well, what did you make of that and as a trainer would you have advised him to even acknowledge those taunts from your team?

BARRY: I think he was certainly frustrated and insulted and it did get under his skin, he felt disrespected. He was in a position where he felt we should respect him more and we simply weren’t giving it to him and he found it hard. And yes, if it was up to me I would’ve advised him not to bother even acknowledging it. It tells us that it’s clearly been on his mind.

However, as I said at the press conference, I made it clear that we said a lot of things in the build-up to his fight, to raise Joe’s profile and to get the contract signed. Now the fight has been signed we acknowledged we do have an enormous amount of respect for Anthony Joshua. I know it got many of Joshua’s fans very very angry with us, but it was all said in the heat of negotiation. I think he realised that and at the end of the press conference he came straight across and shook our hands.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: Now on to the technical side of things. What specifically do you think Joshua has improved on in the last couple of years?

BARRY: Without saying too much we know that he is obviously a strong powerful guy. He has a lot of height and reach on Joe, if we let Joshua control things with his jab it’s going to be a very long night for us. But I believe in Joe’s hand speed and movement and these will be the keys to nullifying those strengths of Joshua’s

BOXINGSCENE.COM: And for Joseph what will you be working on?

BARRY: Well nothing I’ll tell you specifically! (Laughs) You know how we do things, we’ll keep with our proven routines that have worked well in the past. We’ll monitor sparring as it goes, some days your fighter need a little bit more rest than others. We have some good sparring partners lined up. Our strategy will be to keep it simple, keep to our structures, have fun and of course we will also tweak a few things that we feel we’ll need specifically for Joshua.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: How for instance do you replicate Joshua’s power?

BARRY: To be honest it’s very hard but I’ll flip that around and say how does he prepare for Joseph Parker’s speed? Joshua is a big strong guy but at the same time does he really possess one punch power? Yes, he hits very hard but it’s usually four or five punches he needs to put you away and you can ask the question when has Joseph Parker ever been hit with three or four consecutive shots?

BOXINGSCENE.COM: Many fans and some in the media see this as a foregone conclusion for Joshua. Are you guys enjoying the underdog status?

BARRY: Yes, it’s tremendous for us. It plays straight into our hands. We are very very live in this fight, yet you’ve got Joshua and even Eddie Hearn talking about fighting Wilder next and then Fury and even maybe Povetkin.

BOXINGSCENE.COM: Do you think they’re looking past you guys a little bit?

BARRY: Yes, and that’s a beautiful thing for us!

Anthony Joshua goes into his unification fight with Joseph Parker an understandably heavy favourite. Yet despite this one senses a quiet confidence oozing from the camp of Joseph Parker, a combination of unshakeable confidence and a belief in the team. As anyone who ever saw Buster Douglas knockout a seemingly invincible Mike Tyson on that crazy Tokyo afternoon in February 1990 knows, underdogs can win, just so long as they possess the right amount of determination, quality preparation and desire to win, qualities that Parker and his team appear to possess in abundance.