The deal has not been formally agreed and announced officially just yet but the early mind games and trash talking from promoters has already commenced.

David Higgins, Joseph Parker’s promoter, has started to grow on some of the boxing community in recent weeks for his wacky press conference stunts and his ability to now in most people’s view, shortly land a mega fight for his charge WBO champion Joseph Parker against world boxing star Anthony Joshua.

Higgins has gotten creative in recent times and will be a relatively unknown quantity compared to Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn in the promotion.

But he’s not staying quiet and letting things go about their regular course of events – which is always interesting and fun to see in boxing.

Boxing after all, has always had story line and characters in it. The soap opera and hyper bole of professional sports if you will.

Speaking to Behind The Gloves Higgins pointed out how he thinks Anthony Joshua has had a soft touch so far in his boxing career:

“We respect Joshua;s achievements of winning Olympic gold that’s not easy and we respect the juggernaut that he’s become in the heavyweight division including commercially and in the ring. So we don’t mean any disrespect. But I think he’s had a softer ride than Joseph because here boxing is probably funded at amateur. it’s not in New Zealand. Here its easier to get sponsors. Very hard in New Zealand. Here Joshua having won the gold can get media coverage straight away.”

He added:

“Weve had to beg and hustle and think laterally and do the hard yards us as a promoter and Joseph has as boxer to make it. So I would say Joseph is mentally tougher. More steely. He’s (Parker) definitely got a better chin and he’s got faster hands, and a really strong mind. So we think Joshua and his fan base would be a remiss to underestimate Joseph Parker.”

Some fairly straight talk from Higgins which surely at this stage of the game are some subtle mind games on his part. He comes across as a character who will look to give his fighter every advantage.

They seem to think that they have gotten under Joshua’s skin already. Time will tell about that though.

They say that the mental battle is round 1 of any boxing match – so expect more of this kind of talk in the weeks ahead.

The coming months should be fun in the build-up to Joshua vs Parker (when it’s announced):