Joseph Parker has faced a long, arduous road back to the top but the 33-year-old is in a better place than ever as he attempts to become a two-time heavyweight champion.
Since winning the WBO title nearly a decade ago with a points victory over Andy Ruiz Jr. at the tender age of 24, Parker has been on a rollercoaster journey that has seen him go from a unification bout against Anthony Joshua to, at some points, fighting to save his career. On Saturday he takes on Daniel Dubois for the IBF title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In 2018, defeats to Joshua and Dillian Whyte -- a contest which still angers some within Parker's camp after an apparent headbutt -- saw him slide down the pecking order.
A 2021 fight against countryman Junior Fa in Auckland was billed as a do-or-die clash. Parker won, but with an unconvincing performance which was far from the best that he and everyone else knew he could reach. In the aftermath, he split with then coach Kevin Barry.
While he insists he never lost faith that he would return to the top, he admits he has asked some tough questions of himself in recent years' with plenty of soul searching.
"Truthfully, I always believed I had the ability to do well in boxing again, but when you have a few defeats and things are not going your way, you start asking yourself questions," Parker told reporters ahead of his fight with Dubois.
"I never had any doubt and I never wanted to give up ever, but I knew I had to make change and I guess making the change that I've had now has been very, very nice."
That change was coach Andy Lee.
Parker, through close friend and someone he calls a brother, Tyson Fury, connected with Lee. The relationships with Fury and Lee have transformed Parker's career. He went all in, relocating to the UK and even living with Lee at one stage.
"I think it was a great start with Andy and it was a great in the beginning, relearning the basics," Parker explains. "As a fighter, when you've been in the game for a while and you start learning new things, sometimes, you go away from the basics. I think it [also] was important to gain that friendship [with Andy]."
The Irish and New Zealanders are, in a lot of ways, strikingly similar. Friendly and easy going, both peoples are quick to point out how much they punch well above their weight on the global sporting stage.
When it comes to fighting, Lee and Parker are among the best to come from their respective lands. It is no wonder then that they have formed such a strong connection. "You can only learn from each other if you become very close and even though we are friends outside the ring and we like to hang out and chill ... When it's time to train and when it's time to put on work it's very different," Parker said.
Lee didn't shy away from some home truths about Parker's performances after two fights against Derek Chisora, claiming his new charge had a tendency to switch off during rounds. However, the bond was firmly formed.
Progress was then stopped in its tracks with a vicious knockout defeat to Joe Joyce.
Parker and his team were stunned after the fight, in what was the first and only knockout of his career. He was badly beaten up and shunted back down the heavyweight ladder. While Parker hasn't spoken much about it publicly -- not wanting to make excuses -- sources have told ESPN that the New Zealander was so sick on fight night that in hindsight, the bout probably should have been delayed. Regardless, the damage was done.
Wins over Jack Massey and Faiga Opelo got him back on track in 2023. Fury's manager Spencer Brown then arranged for Parker to fight in Saudi Arabia.
While it was for a much lower amount of money than a heavyweight of Parker's calibre would usually command, he wanted to be as busy as possible to haul himself up the rankings again. It also gave him the chance to impress Turki Alalshikh, ranked as the most powerful person in combat sports by ESPN.
He did just that, with an easy knockout of Simon Kean.
Then it was the big one: Deontay Wilder.
Written off by many, Parker produced a clinical boxing display, nullifying Wilder's threats and showing a wealth of experience. The Wilder win was a landmark moment and came when hardly anyone believed he could do it.
Lee passionately defended Parker in the post-fight news conference, slamming the disrespect he had been shown.
"We've had to put up with a lot of stuff. Joshua-Wilder; the deal is done," Lee said. "We got a tiny dressing room, we got a small hotel room. He's top of the bill, he's the main event, a former world champion. It's all about Wilder-Joshua.
"This man had to put up with it all. It didn't get his head down, he just dug in again."
A win over Zhilei Zhang, where he executed Lee's game plan perfectly and survived two knockdowns, reaffirmed his position as a dangerous heavyweight once more.
Finally, after at times being in the heavyweight wilderness, he's got his reward.
There's an argument that Parker is being overlooked again this week. Dubois is rightly the favourite, and while he has insisted he isn't overlooking Parker, the way he jumped in the ring after Oleksander Usyk's win over Tyson Fury and called out the Ukrainian suggests he already has one eye on the future.
But, after all he's been through, being the underdog is exactly what Parker would prefer.