Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Sideline Sid has a lifetime love of boxing since he first went to the gym as a 13-year-old.

The smell of the weathered leather gloves and the tang of liniment, coupled with the boxing posters that lined the gym wall, has stayed with this boxing fan for life.

The 1950s and 60s were the heyday of the sport in New Zealand. Names such as Barry Brown, Tuna Scanlan and American import Eddie Cotton were as well known as the All Blacks of the day.

The thriving professional fight scene saw packed out houses from the Auckland and Wellington town halls to Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

Alongside the big fights, the countries amateur boys would vie to showcase their skills on the professional undercard.

Over the ensuing years, the boxing following has come and gone.

The one constant that grabs the attention of fight fans, and casual sport followers, is the heavyweight division and the much hyped world title fights.

Recent weeks has seen a return of attention to the boxing top echelon.

The punch-up in Las Vegas between the WBC champion Deontay Wilder and the self-named "King of the Gypsy's" Tyson Fury, brought plenty of interest to the bout (and a truck-load of money to the participants).

While there was plenty of trash talking between the pair, the big attraction was that two of the biggest punchers in professional boxing brought undefeated records to the ring.

The fight was Wilder v Fury 2, after the first contest ended in a controversial draw

There was also an extra edge of a Pom against a Yank, with both boxers having a myriad of their fans ringside to give very vocal support for their fancies.

One of the attractions of the heavyweight division is when the big boys get into the ring, you never know what you are going to get.

The second round knockdown of Wilder changed the fight, with the American believed to have received a perforated eardrum.

With all the talk these days of the safety of the boxer being paramount, the referee should have called time-out and called the ringside doctor to inspect Wilder.

The seventh round Fury stoppage victory did our own Joseph Parker few favours.

The Kiwi has already come up short against WBO, WBA and IBF champion Anthony Joshua and with Tyson Fury holding the other major belt, there is little chance of Parker beating Fury.

Over the years, some of my mates have posed the question of how good is Joseph Parker.

My reply has always been another question - what would have been the result of a fight between Parker and David Tua at his absolute best?

Don't get me wrong, I am a Joseph Parker fan and think he is a very good boxer, but I believe that he won't get another shot at Joshua and that Fury is too big of a hill to climb.

However, in boxing everything can change in an instant and a flash knockdown or real upset, could change the current scenario overnight and Joseph Parker could be right back in contention.