Joseph Parker is looking to lose weight and regain some of his trademark foot-speed as he enters a pre-Christmas training camp to set him up for a busy 2018.
The WBO world heavyweight champion has shelved plans for a December fight and will instead use the time to reshape his body for a year he hopes to get in line for a unification fight with either Anthony Joshua or Deontay Wilder.
Parker's trainer Kevin Barry will arrive in Auckland late next week from Las Vegas to oversee a six-week camp where the focus will be on speed.
Having concentrated on bulking up over the past 18 months in an effort to handle the XXXL fighters that dominate the division, there has been a concession that approach has compromised some of Parker's better attributes.
Parker successfully defended his title against Hughie Fury in Manchester last month weighing 112kg and at times he struggled to hunt down the notoriously light-footed Englishman to deliver the knockout blow he desperately wanted.
Barry told Stuff that with Parker's strength improved, the aim now would be for him to lose around 4kg and get more spring in his step.
"We put some size on him and some extra muscle. But I want to get him back to the high 230s (around 108kg)," Barry said from Las Vegas.
"That's why it is very important that we use these six weeks before Christmas to really get some good results in the gym.
"It's important that we get his weight down. I'd like to see his feet a little faster and that's something that we will be working on.
"He has done a lot of work on his legs. If you look at his legs when he first came over here to the States in 2013 and what they look like now, they have just about doubled in size.
"He has big legs now. But I don't want the extra muscle on the legs to make him less mobile and that's why we will be doing a lot of work on making his feet a little faster."
The legs provide plenty of power to a boxer's punch. Parker's fast hands have set him apart and been the basis of his rapid rise up the ranks to hold one of the four coveted belts. It's now about finding a compromise of power and speed to set him apart from his major rivals.
"I want Joe to be different from them by being able to throw more punches than them and that comes with the hands and the feet working together," Barry explained.
"I think there were times during the Fury fight, and let's remember he was the most awkward fighter in the ranked fighters in the division, but there were times when I would have liked Joe's legs to be a little faster."
Barry said the decision to forgo a December fight against Japan's WBO No 9 Kyotaro Fujimoto was a sensible move once the TV deal didn't stack up.
"It's very, very important at the moment that we don't rush into anything and we don 't panic because we didn't get a fight in December ... that we use this time to be productive in the gym, to keep Joe in shape," Barry said.
He liked the way the 25-year-old's career was shaping despite a difficult year where fight contract struggles restricted him to just two outings, around three fights down on his normal annual schedule.
"We didn't get everything that we wanted for 2017 but the most important thing that we did get is that we defended the world title twice and we are starting 2018 with momentum and a lot of really good options," Barry emphasised.
"Getting this camp in before Christmas, we are going to hit the ground running in January and it won't take me long to get Joe back into fighting shape.
"Now that we have got the mandatory out of the way, there is every chance we can fit two voluntary defences in prior to either fighting another mandatory or looking at a unification bout."
Parker will get a three-to four week break over the Chjristmas-New Year period before heading to Las Vegas to start a concentrated camp in the second week of January with an eye to fighting again at the end of January or early March.
Barry felt the Japan option could eventually be revisited, there was a chance of entering the US market against resurgent American Bryant Jennings and the UK continued to beckon with a fight against Tony Bellew if he can get past David Haye in their December rematch.
Photo by: DUNCAN JOHNSTONE/FAIRFAX NZ (Caption: WBO world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker trains with a Swiss ball)