Is Joseph Parker back to his best?

Is he back to his explosive best? Can he make another title run? Here are the key takeaways from the Kiwi heavyweight’s Melbourne knockout.

More than three years had passed since Joseph Parker last stopped an opponent inside the distance.

The Kiwi heavyweight ended that barren five-fight run in ruthless fashion last Wednesday night when he blasted Faiga ‘Django’ Opelu in the first round at Melbourne.

It was an impressive way for Parker (32-3, 22 KOs) to mark his Australian debut as he barely broke a sweat in front of a lively crowd at Margaret Arena.

The former WBO champion now plans on staying busy in a bid to inject some much-needed momentum into his career, eyeing at least three more fights before the end of the year.

Here are five big questions to emerge from a night in which Parker showed he still has plenty to offer in the heavyweight division.

Is Parker back to his explosive best?

Moments after the Aucklander had blown away the overmatched Opelu in devastating fashion, his good friend Tyson Fury grabbed the microphone and declared: ‘‘Joseph Parker is f. . .ing back on the map!’’

It was certainly an encouraging display from Parker, who in his brief time in the ring (about 90 seconds overall) displayed flashes of the blistering handspeed and blazing combinations that took him all the way to a world title in 2016.

Enjoying being the bigger man for a change, Parker bullied the undersized Opelu from the outset, landing his power punches at will and lighting up the 29-year-old Samoan slugger to both head and body.

A right hand to the side of the head planted the Queenslander face-first on the mat and while he gamely made it back up, referee Ignatius Missailidis rightly called off the carnage with 1 minute and 29 seconds still to go in the first frame.

But while Parker deserves plenty of plaudits for producing an explosive performance on Australian soil, that praise must be tempered by the level of the opposition in front of him.

Make no mistake, Opelu (15-4-2, 11 KOs) is a journeyman who was never going to be a serious threat to someone of Parker’s class, unless he could somehow land a lucky punch.

A scaffolder by trade, the Brisbane-based Opelu is simply too small at 5ft 11in to compete with the big boys of the division, including Parker, who towered over him.

If the intention of this mismatch was to boost Parker’s confidence after a series of lacklustre efforts, then it’s mission accomplished. But much tougher tests await him if he wants to be considered a genuine force in the division again.

What was the secret behind his improved showing?

All week, Parker had waxed lyrical about the work he had done in this camp with nutritionist and strength and conditioning coach George Lockhart.

The former US marine – who has worked with Fury as well as a host of UFC stars – got Parker in fantastic shape and he looked more toned than usual at the weigh-in, coming in at a slender 108.8kg, the lightest he had been since his 2018 unification bout with Anthony Joshua.

That was 7kg lighter than his heaviest mark against Joe Joyce last year, when Parker looked sluggish and slow on his feet and was stopped for the first time.

Going off Wednesday’s brief outing, Parker is reaping the benefits of this new fitness regimen. He looked fitter and sharper than in recent fights having been guilty of overtraining – or indeed undertraining – in the past. Now 31 and the father of four young girls, Parker has matured from the party-loving playboy who turned pro aged 20 and he exuded a laserlike focus throughout fight week.

It also helped that he was able to get seven or eight hours of sleep every night, after struggling with insomnia before his bout against Jack Massey in January.

Who and when will he fight next?

At the media conference after his swift victory, Parker reiterated his desire to fight again as soon as possible, with his long-time manager David Higgins saying he had been tasked with finding him an opponent as soon as July.

Who that opponent will be, and where the fight will take place, remains very much a work in progress, though Parker and his team would be more than happy to return to Melbourne after being well-received by the public and striking up a promising working relationship with promoters No Limit Boxing.

Given the short turnaround, don’t expect it to be a world-beater. Parker has long desired rematches with Dillian Whyte, Andy Ruiz Jr and Anthony Joshua, but fights of that magnitude don’t come together at the last minute, and certainly wouldn’t take place on this side of the world.

Expect another outing in Australia, against a middling opponent, as Parker looks to capitalise on his growing popularity on this side of the ditch.

Justis Huni (7-0, 4 KOs) is one name that has been mentioned, but has a bout scheduled in New Orleans next month, while Demsey McKean (22-0, 14 KOs) may be offlimits as he is reportedly being lined up to face Fury.

Can he make another world title run?

It’s certainly possible. Parker is ranked in the top 15 by all three of the four major bodies (6th in the WBO, 10th in the WBC and 12 by the IBF) and a couple more victories would put him right back in the mix for the mandatory positions or an interim title shot.

However, this process takes time to play out and Parker is against the clock if he intends to retire in two years, as he has suggested.

Besides, with Fury ruling out ever defending his WBC strap against Parker, that limits his options to the three currently in Oleksandr Usyk’s possession.

The brilliant Ukrainian is set to defend his belts against his WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) in Poland in August and will then presumably have his mandatories called for the IBF and WBO after that.

China’s Zhilei Zhang (25-1-1, 20

KOs) is the current WBO interim titleholder after relieving Joyce of the belt in April in an upset, after Joyce had won that belt by stopping Parker in an eliminator.

The pair are set to have a rematch for the right to face Usyk, so unless Fury is good on his promise to give his belt to Parker, the Kiwi could be in for a long wait.

How is David Nyika progressing?

Steadily. The Olympic bronze medallist ended a seven-month absence from the ring with a tougher than expected win over Australian

based Kiwi Louis Marsters on the undercard.

Nyika had stopped the 5ft 9in Marsters (3-5, 2 KOs) in two in their first meeting last year, yet this time round he took four to halt his spirited opponent in a fiveround cruiserweight clash.

After a competitive opening stanza, the Kiwi took full control and underlined his superiority by repeatedly tagging the aggressive Marsters with hooks, right hands and uppercuts.

Aside from a couple of anxious moments when Marsters narrowly missed the target with his wild swings, this was a routine affair for Nyika, who got the stoppage that he desired when he snapped his rival’s head back with an uppercut to secure his sixth win and fifth by stoppage.

However, beating someone of Marsters lowly stature told us little about Nyika’s progression as a professional after an outstanding amateur career.

Here’s hoping he will be matched against an opponent with a winning record in his next fight, pencilled in for July, so we can get a more accurate gauge on where he stands in the division.