Joseph Parker believes he can take advantage of any rustiness on Deontay Wilder's part when the fighters meet on Saturday, expressing confidence in his chances of a shock win.
Former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder will face Parker in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday, with Anthony Joshua also fighting on the same bill as he takes on Otto Wallin.
Saturday's bout will be Wilder's first since a first-round knockout of Robert Helenius in October 2022, while Parker has already fought three times this year, overcoming Jack Massey, Faiga Opelu and Simon Kean.
Wilder is reportedly close to agreeing a two-fight deal with Joshua for 2024, but Parker is confident he can deal a fatal blow to his hopes of facing the Brit on Saturday.
"When I beat him, then we're going to have a great 2024. When I beat him, I'm going to be celebrating on the flight back home," Parker told Stats Perform.
"I've had the best preparation for this fight. Like I said before, I started off in Ireland where we have a great setup. We've got a nice gym that we use, a great house that we stay in.
"We've got local shops that we go to, butchers that look after us, and we've got the sea right next to us that we jump in every day.
"Then we finished off in England and now we're here in Saudi Arabia. There's nothing more that I could have done to prepare for this fight. I am primed and ready."
With 14 months having passed since Wilder last stepped into the ring, Parker believes the American could struggle to acclimatise on his return to action.
Parker previously spent close to a year out of the ring before losing to Joe Joyce last September, and he says that absence impacted his performance.
"I feel like being out of the ring for a long time can definitely have an impact on performance, but we will soon find out if it's going to have an impact on him or not," he added.
"It did affect me. That's why this year has been a great year, keeping busy, having three fights already and having this fight as my fourth fight. It's going to be a great night for team Parker.
"I feel great. I feel like I've restarted my career but I have all the experience to help me with this new start and constantly learning off Andy [Lee]. Everything is perfect. It's now it's all up to myself to put it all on display on fight night, put it all together."
Former WBO middleweight champion Lee has been preparing Parker for the fight, having also been part of Tyson Fury's team as the Gypsy King overcame Wilder twice in 2020 and 2021.
Asked about the importance of Lee, Parker said: "Andy Lee as my trainer has got all the experience to pass on, being a fighter himself and a champion himself, and he was at the fights when Tyson was fighting Deontay.
"I was there for all three fights myself, it was good to see it in person. It's great to get a bit of advice off Tyson.
"But ultimately I'm going to be in the ring putting on best performance and I'm going to take care of business myself."
Pennel rages against the Opta machine
Kansas City Chiefs tackle Mike Pennel is out to prove the Opta supercomputer wrong after it estimated the team's chances of a Super Bowl three-peat at just 11.6%.
The Chiefs are looking to make history in the 2024 campaign, which they open on Thursday with a mouthwatering tussle with the Baltimore Ravens, who they beat in last season's AFC Championship game.
Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Andy Reid and company are out to make the Chiefs the first franchise in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls.
Eight teams have previously won back-to-back Super Bowls, only to fail to make the showpiece game in the subsequent season, most recently the New England Patriots in 2004 and 2005.
Ahead of the new campaign, the Opta supercomputer's predictive model, which takes into account a team's quarterback and EVE (efficiency vs expected) performance, rated Kansas City's chances of winning Super Bowl LIX at 11.6%.
They are more favoured than AFC rivals Baltimore (10.8%), but the San Francisco 49ers – who the Chiefs beat at Super Bowl LVIII and Super Bowl LIV – are favourites with a 23.9% likelihood of winning it all.
Pennel is desperate to prove the model wrong, telling Stats Perform: "Give me the opportunity to fight against the machines! I don't think we were favoured in any playoff game this year. You know what I mean?
"I'm pretty sure they're doing it off numbers, but we played them twice in the Super Bowl. We beat them twice. I guess we'll just have to get to it.
"I think we may see them again. But the NFC, they've got some tough teams out there right now. They got some teams that are ascending, Green Bay was looking good and are another dark horse.
"We'll see what Dallas is doing, how their contract situation works out. The Eagles look very, very, very solid. So we'll see how it shakes out. Remember, you've got to remain healthy to make it to the game. That's out of both teams' hands.
"We'll see what happens, but 23% to 11%? I can't agree with that. I would flip-flop that, but maybe it's calculating in the three-peat. Maybe that's what it is."
The Chiefs have made six consecutive AFC Championship games since Mahomes became their starting quarterback in 2018, winning four of those and going on to claim three Super Bowl rings.
Asked where their main competition might come from in the AFC, Pennel highlighted the Houston Texans – in their second year with C.J. Stroud leading the offense – as a major threat.
"I love the direction that Houston is going in. They're going to be formidable in the AFC. Cleveland with a healthy Deshaun Watson, we're interested to see how that looks," he said.
"Even in our division, you know, the Chargers with Jim Harbaugh, they've got a franchise quarterback in Justin Herbert. We know he'll be running the ball, but we'll see how that shakes out.
"The AFC is just getting better, man. There'll be a couple dark horses in there, but those are the two or three that I really think are going to take a leap and be competitive."
Pennel expects Rodgers 'back with a vengeance', cannot split Jets QB from Mahomes
Mike Pennel expects Aaron Rodgers to be "back with a vengeance" this season but struggles to split the 40-year-old from Patrick Mahomes, having played with both quarterbacks.
Rodgers joined the New York Jets from the Green Bay Packers in a blockbuster trade last year, only to rupture his Achilles in Week 1 and miss the remainder of the 2023 season.
With Rodgers now fully fit, the Jets are expected to be a major force in the AFC when the 2024 campaign gets under way this week, as they look to halt a miserable run of eight losing seasons in a row.
Kansas City Chiefs tackle Pennel spent three years alongside Rodgers in Green Bay, playing 37 games through the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Asked if he feels Rodgers has something to prove this year, he told Stats Perform: "Absolutely. I think that's why Aaron still does it. He's a highly competitive person as well.
"He wanted to succeed and with how the Jets were set up last year, it was very, very, very unfortunate how the season began and turned out because they were going to be a formidable team in the AFC.
"I know he's going to come back with a vengeance and he's prepared himself to do so. He has a lot in the tank.
"He learned from [former Packers and Jets quarterback] Brett Favre. So we've at least got about five more years of Rodgers, right?"
Pennel has plenty of experience of playing with generational QB talents, having also teamed up with three-time Super Bowl winner Mahomes through two separate spells in Kansas City, the first spanning the 2019 and 2020 seasons before he returned to the team last October.
Rodgers has thrown for 59,055 yards and 475 touchdowns in 231 games through his 19 years in the NFL.
Mahomes, meanwhile, has already accumulated 28,424 yards and 219 touchdown passes through seven years with the Chiefs, and just six as their starter.
Mahomes' 2023 figures of 4,183 passing yards and 27 touchdown throws were his second-worst since becoming the Chiefs' starter in 2018, after the 2019 campaign (4,031 yards, 26 touchdown throws), yet he still came up trumps when it mattered to lead the team to Super Bowl LVIII glory.
Pennel believes Mahomes' mobility sets him out from all other quarterbacks, but he struggles to split him from Rodgers, who he sees as having a huge influence on others to play the position.
"I think Aaron Rogers, he has crazy arm talent, you know, he was the innovator of the no-look pass and coming out of the gap on scramble and things like that," he said.
"Pat's just a killer, man. I'm telling you about his mobility, but gosh, I mean, I feel like he's like the Ricky Bobby of the NFL!
"He's got the first or his last, you know what I mean? He has a different switch."
NFL teams unwilling to hand Belichick total control, suggests Pennel
Bill Belichick's failure to land another coaching role in the NFL after leaving the New England Patriots was unsurprising due to the level of control he demands, says his former tackle Mike Pennel.
Belichick is regarded as one of the greatest head coaches in NFL history, leading the Patriots to nine Super Bowls and winning six during 23 seasons in charge between 2000 and 2023.
His six Super Bowl titles as a head coach match the best returns of any franchise in NFL history, with the Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers both possessing six.
He is also within reach of Don Shula's record for the most victories as an NFL head coach, with his total of 333 (including postseason games) putting him 14 behind the Miami Dolphins legend (347).
If only regular-season games are counted, Belichick has 302 victories to Shula's 328.
However, Belichick parted company with the Patriots after they went 4-13 during a dismal 2023 season, and he was unable to land a new role despite being linked with several teams, including the Los Angeles Chargers and Dallas Cowboys.
Pennel, who spent six months with Belichick's Patriots in 2019, believes the level of control he demands over a franchise's direction proved off-putting.
"Bill Belichick's one of the greatest coaches of all time, if not that. So it's going to look a lot different. He was coaching in the NFL before I was even alive," he told Stats Perform.
"I'm clearly just speculating because I'm not part of the New England Patriots franchise, but I just think the situation was, it was that time where they wanted to change.
"They wanted a fresh face and Bill wants things to run a certain way and I don't think franchises are willing to relinquish that much control to a new coach.
"I just think he wants to take his time. I know he's a family man and just wants to enjoy the time with his family. He's already done everything."
Jerod Mayo has taken the reins in Foxborough following Belichick's departure, with quarterback Drake Maye being drafted third overall to lead the team into a new era.
Pennel, however, believes teething problems will be part of the process this year, saying: "It's hard. It takes some time. You know, there's a couple years of transition depending on how much time you have with the players and everything like that.
"You're learning a whole new system. You're learning with all new players, you're learning with all new staff, so it's very hard.
"I don't think it's ever happened like that, in the first year to go to a Super Bowl. It's hard to get to that successful level."
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