Craig Parker Opens Up About Losing His Ranking to Jake Paul, Suggesting the YouTuber's Boxing Days May Be Numbered

CRAIG PARKER is hitting the UK to claw back some respect for American boxing after Jake Paul’s Anthony Joshua disaster.

The 29-year-old prankster had his dangerous foray into the hurt business backed by the sanctioning bodies, who can cream hefty fees off the top of his purses if he competes for their belts.

Jack Paul was beaten up and knocked out by Anthony Joshua after over hyping his abilityCredit: X formerly Twitter / @Netflix The celebrity fighter had his jaw rearranged by the London 2012 legendCredit: Instagram / jakepaul Craig Parker had his WBA world ranking stolen by Jake Paul despite 21 winsCredit: Instagram @craigparkerboxing

The WBA disgracefully slotted Paul into No14 of their cruiserweight WORLD rankings last year, after dismal points wins over faded and troubled veteran Julio Cesar Chavez and ancient and unwell legend .

That meant 35-year-old Parker – who now has a 21-0 record against unknown but legitimate opponents – dropped a spot to 15th.

Paul – usually a 6ft 1in cruiser – then had a November bout with 5ft 5in lightweight ace arranged but that struggled to sell and collapsed, leaving him to fight our AJ, who shattered his jaw in two places.

But, even before that obliteration, the blonde bluffer repeatedly fell to the floor, clung to the Watford hero’s boots and crawled along like a dog.

Parker respects what promoter Paul has done for the sport.

But, on a whistlestop tour of London where he sparred former world champ Chris Billam-Smith and rising prospect Lucas Roehrig, he told SunSport that sanity has hopefully been restored.

Before doing six hard rounds at Dale Youth, under the watchful eye of , Parker told SunSport: “Myself and so many other guys in the sport come from very tough backgrounds and we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the sport.

“So for to come and take away my No14 ranking – which I was so happy about, and proud of – it hurt.

“I wanted to use that ranking to move forward and upward and instead I ended up moving down.

“The funny thing is, if I had never spoken out about it, then I would not have had some of the interest in my career that I have received, so it might have turned from a curse into a blessing.

“I think we are back on the right track now. I think that last fight made him realise that he might not want to keep doing this.

“If he does decide to carry on then I wish him good luck, because he needs it and I would never pray for anybody’s downfall.”

Paul’s MVP promotional company is doing brilliant work for the female code, especially with some of the UK’s top talents.

Unified super-bantam queen Ellie Scotney has finally got the fights and platform she deserves and lightweight champ Carolie Dubois has followed her to the empowered stable.

Parker gives credit where it is due but reminds the sport that Paul’s dangerous antics would not be allowed anywhere other than boxing’s Wild West.

He said: “What he is doing for women’s is amazing, and he is a great promoter, he has promoted himself real well.

“He also has some good up-and-coming fighters, who I know he treats really well.

“Kudos to him for what he does outside the ring but it looks like the celebrity fighting is better off as his thing.

“Because when he came into the real world and fought his first real fighter, that was disrespectful to our sport.

“The sport should not have allowed it, because he would never be allowed on a professional NFL football field or basketball court, with the NFL or NBA players.

“But this business is wide open.”