If combat sports followed the tradition of Hollywood rom-coms and had meet cutes involving fighters and trainers, the one between Joseph Parker, the New Zealand heavyweight, and George Lockhart would have represented the perfect foundation on which to build.

Imagine, if you can, Parker in a library carrying a stack of books on, say, architecture, only to suddenly drop the books as he walks to the front desk. Now imagine Lockhart, seeing this from across the room, helping Parker retrieve everything he has dropped, then looking at the title of a particular book and saying, “Yes, that is a good one. But I know one that is even better.”

That, in a nutshell, was the start of the budding relationship between Parker and Lockhart; fighter and strength and conditioning coach. It was one built on familiarity and a common interest, yes, but ultimately it was one built on disarray and the need for helping hands. 

“I’ve worked with MMA fighters for years and then I got connected with Tyson Fury and Joe is obviously good friends with Tyson, so we got to sit and talk for a while during camps,” said Lockhart. “I never worked with him personally at that time, I just helped him cook and stuff, and then the ‘Django’ [Faiga Opelu] fight came about and Tyson didn’t have a fight, so I started working with Joe. I was just doing the nutrition aspect for him and they came into the gym one day and I was just dumbfounded to see the lack of scheduling, structure, etcetera. They let me take over that aspect. 

“This will be the first camp where I’ve been able to do the strength and conditioning, the recovery, and the nutrition all in one. I then work closely with Andy [Lee, Parker’s boxing coach], so that everything is connected and makes sense. You’re not just sparring on random days – everything is primed and ready. The food he is eating for a sparring day will be different from the food he is eating for a day when he’s doing pads. Knowing all that stuff, and knowing what’s coming up, I can prep Joe for that and basically keep his body in check. We have check marks, we have goals, and this is the type of conditioning he needs for this type of fight. If you’re planning on a 12-rounder fought at a specific pace versus a [Daniel] Dubois, who comes out fast, you’ve got to get that heart rate up and be ready from the beginning.”

It is for this reason that Parker, prior to sparring, warms up with an uncommon intensity and works up quite the sweat before even donning gloves and entering the ring. Then, by the time he does, he is so warm, despite it being a damp January morning, he feels no need to wear a T-shirt. He is ready, it seems. He is ready to spar, he is ready to start fast, and he is ready, more importantly, for whatever Daniel Dubois brings on February 22 in Saudi Arabia. 

“Unlike a marathon, where you establish and maintain a pace, boxing isn’t like that,” explained Lockhart. “It would be nice if it was, but if somebody comes out like a bat out of hell and you’re not acclimated to have your heart rate go that high, or equipped for the muscular endurance required, it’s going to shock the system and you’re never going to recover. 

“So what do we do? We do specific training that’s going to spike that heart rate so he is used to it at a specific level. Every single round Andy has a plan: we’re doing this for this round, this for this round. Some rounds are more explosive and some are more pace work. You have to train accordingly. With Joe, we started off sprinting, getting that heart rate up, and then we’ve got nine more rounds. It’s coming together.”

Given the way Dubois set about Anthony Joshua in September, it is no surprise to hear that Parker and his team expect the Londoner to come out the blocks fast on Saturday night. Yet that doesn’t mean they are assuming anything, nor that they will simply react to whatever Dubois chooses to do when the first bell rings. 

“Sometimes you can fight fire with fire and sometimes you can use it against an opponent,” said Andy Lee, Parker’s coach. “But you have to be ready for it. There’s a difference between being ready and being overanxious and hyped up. It’s about being cool and cold. As long as you’ve got your eyes and you’re calm, there’s nothing he can hit you with. The repertoire of boxing punches is pretty basic: a jab, right cross, hook, hook, uppercuts. There are no other punches in boxing. So it’s not like he’s going to come out and reinvent something or throw something we have never seen before. The experience of Joe means he has seen it all by now. He can see everything coming. He just needs to stay calm and if he [Dubois] wants to start fast, let him start fast. Then you put the fire out and you start your own fire.”

Few fighters were as cool under fire as Andy Lee, of course. In fact, one of the Irish southpaw’s most famous knockout wins – a fifth-round stoppage of John Jackson in 2014 – arrived at the point at which Jackson, having floored Lee earlier in the same round, was chasing after him in pursuit of the finish. It was then, just as other fighters would panic, Lee kept his composure and prepared his counter right hook, knowing that the aggression and complacency of Jackson could, if the shot detonated, work against him. 

Parker may try something similar with Dubois on Saturday night. Who knows? All we do know is that the 33-year-old has never been better prepared, both for Dubois as an opponent and for a fight, full stop. He has, by his own admission, fixed whatever was previously broken and is now enjoying the process of preparing for a fight all over again. 

“Structure is everything,” said Lockhart. “You have buckets of energy and whether it’s moving house or playing with the kids, you’re using buckets of energy. If those buckets become empty, you’re wasting energy. A lot of guys go and do random workouts – we’ll go do a run today – but they don’t know why. What are they working on? Which energy system are they trying to improve? They just run to run and do pad work to do pad work. If you’re not working on biomechanics, or one aspect of muscular endurance, aerobic capacity, then you’re just wasting energy. 

“One of the first things I told Joe when we started working together for the Django fight was that I was blown away that he was a world champion with the lack of structure around him. He’s always had the work ethic, all these guys have work ethic, but in boxing there is no structure whatsoever. That was my goal, to give him some a year and a half ago, and now we’re here. 

“Dubois is just a stepping stone. I’m not looking at him becoming a world champion. I’m looking at him becoming undisputed and breaking records in terms of how many times we defend it.”

For a coach – whether a boxing coach or a strength and conditioning coach – there can be no better feeling than working with a student who listens. The only thing better, perhaps, is to have a student who is not only willing to listen but also has both experience on their side and a desire to rectify past mistakes. 

“That’s everything,” said Lockhart. “With my background, I’ve worked with more world champions than anyone. The first time I worked with Conor [McGregor], he knocked out Jose Aldo. The first time I worked with Holly Holm, she knocked out Ronda Rousey. The first time I worked with Tyson, he destroyed [Deontay] Wilder. 

“You can have the best pedigree and the best statistics, but if they hire you that doesn’t mean anything. Are you going to listen and do exactly what I say? Some people become friends with you but it’s like your girlfriend taking nutrition advice from you. You love them but that doesn’t mean they listen to you. With Joe, he is my best friend. He is my brother. But at the end of the day, when it’s time to work, he listens to everything I say. He won’t eat unless I give it to him. Training-wise, sleep-wise, everything. It makes my job super easy but then it also gives me the ability to say, ‘This is where we’re going to go, this is where we’re going to get to.’ 

“We’re just getting warmed up here. When we started, he was 104kg for the Django fight. Yesterday [January 27], he got up to 127kg. He’s humongous. You see him today and he’s sparring like a middleweight. He’s got that extra power and that extra weight behind him. But unlike most people he’s not going to gas or slow down. He’s fast and his conditioning is the best it has ever been. We’ve got all aspects.”

The ground, then, has already been broken, with the scaffolding now in place. On Saturday it is time for Joseph Parker to build.

Elliot Worsell is a boxing writer whose byline first appeared in Boxing News magazine at the age of 17. He has, in the 20 years since, written for various publications, worked as press officer for two world heavyweight champions and won four first-place BWAA (Boxing Writers Association of America) awards. In addition to his boxing writing, Worsell has written about mixed martial arts for Fighters Only magazine and UFC.com, as well as worked as a publicist for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He has also written two non-fiction books, one of which, “Dog Rounds,” was shortlisted at the British Sports Book Awards in 2018.