Parker is the mandatory challenger to Joshua's IBF title, and the Kiwi's next fights, starting with his clash against Dimitrenko at Manukau's Vodafone Events Centre on October 1, will be preparation for that bout against the 1.98m Joshua, which is likely to happen early next year should the pair retain their respective challenger and title holder positions.
A fight against the 2.03m Price would allow Parker, undefeated over 20 professional fights, to continue his development and give him an experience of fighting in England for the first time. The venue and opponent for Joshua's second title defence on November 26 have yet to be announced. Price's trainer David Coldwell told Sky Sports in the UK recently: "I think it's been whispered already about a possible fight with Parker and we've been up for that from day one.
"It's not like Pricey doesn't want to fight anybody."
The fight against the 2.01m Dimitrenko will be Parker's first since he beat Solomon Haumono in Christchurch in July. He said sparring taller and heavier opponents at his Las Vegas base was a new challenge.
"With this camp, Kev [trainer Kevin Barry] has bought in some big, elite, sparring partners, guys who are a lot bigger than I am. It's a lot different sparring these tall guys compared to the guys we've had in previous camps. Things we've been working on are just head movement, making angles, and just working on defence, improving and getting better."
Parker, who stands 1.93m tall, said hitting the body early in order to get inside his opponent's longer reach was a big part of his preparations, and once inside he had to make the most of it.
"With fighting bigger guys, it's very, very important to start hitting the body early from round one, with previous fights, we've had the plan to attack the body from round one but I've sort of been attacking at around round three, so I think with this fight it's very important to execute the plan, and that's what I'm going to do.
"I have to make the most of it, because you're doing all this work to get inside and once I'm in there, I feel like I have to throw combinations, throw punches, and then make angles, so I'm safe, you know, to avoid what they're trying to throw, and then it's more like 'getting in and getting out' as fast as you can."
Trainer Barry said he had brought in a Romanian fighter with 20 professional fights, a former world kickboxing champion who is undefeated as a professional boxer, and an undefeated cruiserweight, who "I bring in at the end of the sparring sessions, who throws more punches than any heavyweight. So it's a very good combination that we're getting some terrific results with", Barry said.
"For the Dimitrenko fight, it's going to be very important Joe uses his speed, it's very important he's going to get in, double and triple jab his way in, work away to the body on the big man, and then get out off angles. We don't want to be caught going straight back, and we don't want to be caught finishing punching and staying inside the reach of Dimitrenko."
