It's just over a week until Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker contest their eagerly awaited heavyweight clash in Cardiff.

Both fighters will put their world titles on the line, whereas both also go into the bout having gone unbeaten so far in their professional careers.

Joshua will go into the match-up as the favourite, with a potential fight against WBC Heavyweight title holder Deontay Wilder expected to follow.

But, the Englishman has shown he is taking his fight against the New Zealander vey seriously, after claiming that Parker represents a tougher test than what Wilder will pose.

“When you talk about Parker you talk about his speed, his stamina and he's got a good chin," Joshua said earlier this week. "Parker doesn't throw many combination punches, but he throws more [than Wilder]. There has never been one champion in the heavyweight division that relied solely on power and one punch.

“Parker has a bit more all-round game; left hook, right hand, swings one right to the body, he likes a left hook to the body. I haven't seen Wilder throw that many body shots. Wilder relies on the right hand, so I think Parker is a better all rounder."

TEAM PARKER ARE FURIOUS AT JOSHUA

With the fight drawing ever closer, tensions between the two camps have understandably heightened in recent times.

And, those tensions only escalated further on Anthony Joshua's media day, where he refused to speak to New Zealand and Samoan media.

That has gone down extremely badly with Parker's entourage, who have accused Joshua of lacking respect in the build-up to the fight.

Speaking to media on Thursday morning, Parker's trainer, Kevin Barry, stated: "This is not just about Anthony Joshua. There is an undefeated WBO champion called Joseph Parker, and his people are here form New Zealand and they're here from Samoa.

"Show them a little bit of respect.

"Hopefully, he [Joshua] will get off his high horse, and when we sit down and have a press conference next week, he will speak to the media who are here and give them the respect that they deserve, as we have done to the UK media.

"We have had a very busy household of media from the UK. We have had them for breakfast, we have had them for lunch, we have had them in the gym with us all day.

"Some of their teams were with us for three days at a time. We have been very inviting, and we opened our home and our gym to them."

And David Higgins, Parker's promoter, also had some words to say about Joshua's actions.

"Some people are humble and some people pretend to be humble," promoter David Higgins said.

"For those Kiwi journalists to drive all the way to Sheffield, and for him to walk out and leave them standing - it goes to character.

"Samoa's a long way and hopefully Anthony Joshua makes time for our colleagues from Samoa the next time we meet."

It's fair to say they weren't happy, and given Joshua's actions, they have every right not to be.

Regardless, this only adds more fuel to the fire ahead of one of the biggest fights in heavyweight boxing of 2018.