From the outside looking in, it seemed as though Otto Wallin was going to give Anthony Joshua hell in the ring. The two officially met up in the main event slot last weekend in the Kingdom Arena, in Saudi Arabia.

Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s long time promoter, didn’t believe his man would get beat, but his palms were a bit sweaty once the opening bell rang. The jittery nerves of Hearn, however, were calmed as Joshua dominated the highly-ranked contender, eventually stopping him in the fifth round.

Although his performance was terrific, Joseph Parker may have stolen the show. In the co-main event, it was essentially a foregone conclusion that Deontay Wilder would violently stop him, possibly early. Parker though, didn’t follow the script.

The former heavyweight champ was the busier fighter, the stronger fighter, and the flat-out better fighter on the night. Prior to the show getting going, Hearn revealed that both Wilder and Joshua signed a two-fight deal to finally get it on.

With Wilder seemingly off the table now, Parker (34-3, 23 KOs) becomes an interesting name. Of course, Joshua got the better of Parker back in 2018. The 31-year-old is back to being a hot commodity though. Still, that doesn’t mean he’ll land another shot at Joshua as soon as he would probably like.

“Yea look, you never rule out anything,” said Hearn to Boxing Social. “But I don’t think it’s on the immediate radar.”

According to Hearn, it’ll take more than just a handful of recent good performances for Parker to get back in the mix. For now, team Joshua is aiming for a showdown with Filip Hrgovic for a possibly vacant title.

With that said, Parker isn’t totally out of the loop. If he wants to get his hands on Joshua once again, he’ll just have to put in a bit more work.

“If Joe keeps winning, for sure.”

David Higgins, promoter for former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, believes his fighter has done what is necessary to earn a rematch with British superstar Anthony Joshua.

Back in 2018, Joshua won a twelve round unanimous decision over Parker to unify the WBA, WBO, IBF titles.

Last month in Saudi Arabia, Parker shocked the division when he outboxed heavily favored Deontay Wilder over twelve rounds to derail a planned March mega-bout with Joshua. Parker was the more active boxer and was able to avoid Wilder’s dangerous right hand for the entire fight.

The victory marks Parker’s fourth win in a row since suffering a stoppage loss at the hands of Joe Joyce in 2022.

“Joseph has earned that fight [with Joshua] in my opinion and the Saudis would see merit in Parker against Anthony Joshua,” Parker’s promoter David Higgins told Sky Sports. “It might not be next, there might be a bit more work to do but I think that’s the fight fans want to see. It’s a merit-based fight.

“In terms of opponents, Joseph will fight anyone and if you look at all the names on his resume from Derek Chisora twice, Joe Joyce, Joshua, Wilder, Dillian Whyte, the list goes on and he’s still only 31-years-old. We’ll fight Anthony Joshua in a heartbeat. Everyone knows Joseph will fight him next but I am not sure that’s an option. We’ll obviously look at any option and see what comes forward.”

Joshua was also in action in the headline bout of the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card that featured the Wilder-Parker encounter. Joshua battered and stopped Otto Wallin in five rounds. Joshua will now be looking for a dance partner, which at the moment appears to be unbeaten contender Filip Hrgovic.