World top-10 ranked Australian heavyweight Mark de Mori has been promised the biggest payday of his career if he dares to step into the ring with New Zealand's rising star Joseph Parker.
Perth-born and Croatia-based, de Mori is ranked eighth by the WBA, two places above Parker, who scored a spectacular second-round knockout of German champion Yakup Saglam last weekend.
Mori is one of a number of Australian heavyweights on the radar of Duco Events who look after 23-year-old Parker, regarded as one of the best young heavyweights in the world.
WBA third-rated Lucas Browne, former world title contender Alex Leapai and WBO 13th-ranked Bowie Tupou are other Australians who could be potential opponents for Parker, whose next fight will be against Japan's Kyotaro Fujimoto in Invercargill on August 1.
Duco Events director Dean Lonergan was bullish about pursuing a matchup with de Mori, who has won his last 20 bouts and is unbeaten in his past 24 since his only loss more than 10 years ago.
"One person I'd love Joseph to fight is Mark de Mori," Lonergan said.
"He's a contender, he sits at number eight in the WBA and has fought no-one.
"I'd just say this to Mark de Mori `come and have a chat to us, we'll pay you the biggest payday you've ever had to knock you out.'"
Parker appeared on the undercard of the Leapai-Wladimir Klitschko world title bout in Germany last year.
"At some stage we'd love to fight Alex Leapai but he wants too much money at the moment," Lonergan said.
"We can get guys for a similar sort of money that are ranked and Alex isn't ranked at the moment and he's coming off three (straight) losses.
"Lucas Browne is out there, but he sits at number three in the WBA.
"It's unlikely we'll get a shot at Lucas until he gets a a title shot, but we'd love to have a crack at him."
Duco's rising Australian welterweight Jeff Horn is poised to take on his first top-10 ranked opponent on their August 1 card.
Horn was hoping his WBA rating of 15 would rise to around 10 after he stopped 11th-ranked Richmond Djarbeng of Ghana in New Zealand last Saturday.
His next opponent is expected to be the Ukraine's WBO 10th-rated Viktor Plotnykov, a 37-year-old Ukrainian with a 32-2 record.
Plotnykov won the vacant IBF Inter-Continental welterweight title in his last bout.
"He's ranked in the top 10 so he's going to be another step up. I haven't fought anyone in the top ten yet," Horn said.
Duco hope to clinch an Australian TV deal for Horn soon and have high hopes for the 27-year-old Queenslander.
"He's got five or six more fights and he'll be in the top three of the world," Lonergan said.
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