Joseph Parker

Promoters for WBO champion Parker and IBF and WBA champion Joshua are in increasingly serious negotiations about a unification fight early next year.

They finally seem to be finding some common ground. Parker's boss at Duco Events David Higgins started with a hardline demand of 50 per cent of what could be a massive pay-day and brought that down to 40 per cent. Parker appears ready to compromise even further to try to seal the deal.

That's the view of fellow Brit Tony Bellew who has delivered a personal column where he dishes out his harsh realities for New Zealand's WBO heavyweight champion.

The handlers of Parker and Joshua are locked in negotiations for a unification fight.

Bellew has penned his column ahead of his juicy rematch with David Haye in London next month.

Bellew noted the injury rumours around Haye and said he would be happy to switch his attention to Parker if the Haye fight fell over.

Parker, the WBO champion, and Joshua, the IBF and WBA champion, both want the fight to happen and it seems there is finally some movement in the stalled money talks to increase the possibility of a showdown in the ring next year.

"We weren't happy with their starting point but they have signalled they are willing to move a bit. We are in the middle of that negotiation now," Duco Events boss David Higgins said on Thursday after a night of productive talks with Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn.

Fury is even willing to put his money where his mouth is.

"If Anthony Joshua fights Joseph Parker I will bet anybody in the world £5000 cash the [that] Parker will ko him?" Fury, back in the gym and vowing to clear his name to re-enter the division, wrote on Twitter.

The Parker and Joshua camps continue to be at odds over the value of the fight, with Duco Events boss David Higgins seething over a low-ball offer from Hearn earlier in the week.

Higgins is adamant New Zealand boxer Parker deserves at least 40 per cent of a fight against Joshua, the IBF and WBA champion, and won't back down from that. Hearn obviously isn't close to that with his offer.

"I got this weird email from Eddie's email address, but he must have been hacked," Higgins told Sky Sports. "He made the most ridiculously low offer. It could have been the most insulting offer in boxing history.

"He's got my number if he wants to actually make a respectable offer.

Joseph Parker's promoter is prepared to give Anthony Joshua 60 per cent of a deal to unify three of the four heavyweight belts.

Joshua's backer Eddie Hearn is courting WBO champion Parker and WBC champion Deontay Wilder for the rights to fight his IBF and WBA belt holder and would like the next deal done by the end of the month.

Duco Events boss David Higgins has made a move on the bidding table, dropping his cut as negotiations ramp up.

Unification is the catchword for 2018 after Britain's Anthony Joshua defended his WBA and IBF titles against Carlos Takam last weekend.

Parker, the WBO champion, is the third fighter in the equation and Wilder was brutal in his assessment of the Kiwi's talent and campaign.

Parker attended Wilder's last fight in February, when the American took his record to 38-0 against Gerald Washington, and spoke of his hopes of getting in the ring with him. But with Parker bogged down with a mandatory defence against Hughie Fury, the Wilder fight hasn't eventuated.

Parker's promoter David Higgins made that clear as the boxing world digested Joshua's 10th round stoppage of Carlos Takam in Cardiff last weekend.

Higgins' one condition remains a "substantial" increase in the split of the purse previously suggested by Joshua's boss Eddie Hearn who has intimated an 80-20 cut in the big Brit's favour.

After getting past the durable Takam, Hearn and Joshua targeted WBO champion Parker, WBC champion Deontay Wilder and sidelined star Tyson Fury as the fights they would chase in 2018. And they have a February 3 slot vacant at the moment.

It was an ugly win for the British boxing star who moved to 20-0 in his career, all by stoppage, but the Watford man mountain maintained his pledge to unify the heavyweight division next year.

The next step in the journey will either be a mandatory defence of the WBA belt, or a fight with World Boxing Organisation champion Joseph Parker, the promoter Eddie Hearn intimated hours after Joshua had forced a 10th-round referee stoppage against granite-chinned Takam.

That's the firm belief of Parker's trainer Kevin Barry after he analysed Joshua's 10th round stoppage of durable Frenchman Carlos Takam to defend his IBF and WBA titles in Cardiff on Sunday (NZT).

All the attention now moves to Joshua's next opponent - with Parker, as WBO champion, and American Deontay Wilder as the WBC belt holder, the names on everyone lips as unification hopes come into the frame for 2018.