Joseph Parker's life in Dublin: Dips in the Forty Foot and training with Andy Lee
Joseph Parker will aim to secure a world title showdown with heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk by beating Fabio Wardley this weekend. The pair clash at The O2 in London on Saturday, with the winner set to face Usyk early in next year. The New Zealand native has prepared for the bout in Dublin over the past few weeks with his trainer, former WBO world middleweight champion Andy Lee. Parker moved his wife and children over to Ireland for his training camp, which Lee believes has been 'hugely beneficial' to him. The 33-year-old, who missed the births of four of his six children due to being in training camps, opted to live in a house a short distance away from his family for his camp, but visited them when he wanted to. "I think it’s been very beneficial to him to have the kids here and his wife here," Lee said on The Sun's No Glove Lost podcast. "The lads know in the studio, a lot of downtime when you’re in camp and when it’s quiet, those are the hardest times because you’re lonely and you have a lot of time to think."But now he’s in this camp he’s just been able to pop up to the hotel, see his kids, see his wife even if it’s only for 10 minutes, an hour here or there."It just fills that gap and fills that void and for them, for the kids as well to know where their dad is. I think the youngest one is about six months, the oldest one is eight."He’s got six kids, so they’re all young and like that that goes missing for eight to 10 weeks. They don’t know where he is."So now they know where he’s going. They know where his gym is, dad’s gone boxing, but in their mind they can picture it, you know what I mean?"So I think hugely beneficial to him to have him here because, and I think it’s motivated him. It gives him that little boost."Lee trains at Ballybrack Boxing Club in Dublin, with Parker and the rest of his fighters, including Paddy Donovan, Ben Whittaker and Hamzah Sheeraz, regularly seen swimming in the Forty Foot. You can see a number of photos of Parker in Ireland below:
