Rising New Zealand boxing star Joseph Parker needs to get his big feet back on the ground and get busy, according to his Commonwealth Games coach Billy Meehan.
Auckland 18-year-old Parker let victory slip by going into his shell during this morning's (NZT) super heavyweight quarterfinal loss to Tariq Abdul Haqq.
It was the tightest of results, with the scores locked 7-7 on points when the three rounds completed, before the five judges voted 3-2 in favour of Haqq to break the deadlock.
Meehan felt Parker may have been unlucky but wouldn't dwell on it.
Instead, he was compelled to criticise the youngster for slackening off after taking the early lead on points. Meehan suggested that was sympomatic of Parker's lax mental state since being talked up by many pundits in the leadup to the Games.
"There's been a lot of talk about this young kid. Maybe he's been reading a lot of his own press and believing it a little bit more than actually doing the work," Meehan said.
"The competitions he's been winning are youth. This is senior open and she's a whole harder game.
"It (the fight) was very close but Joseph's work rate was just way too low.
"He's got so much potential it's not even funny. It's just a matter of getting it out of him."
Meehan said he was "sad" none of New Zealand's six-strong boxing team had earned a medal here. None reached the semifinals after Parker and Reece Papuni were downed in the quarterfinals.
Meehan said a couple of opportunities had slipped past some of the fighters and he remained bitter at the manner of David Aloua's exit yesterday, when the heavyweight's innocuous bleeding nose was deemed bad enough to stop the fight and award it to his opponent.
He said the New Zealand boxers had performed better than at Melbourne four years ago, notching four wins and six losses in total.
However, overcoming a shrinking of the number of amateur boxers in New Zealand was a major hurdle to overcome.
