Joseph Parker has elaborated on an old injury that resurfaced in the build-up to his fight with Junior Fa last year which, due to the bout's delay, was addressed with another surgery.
Parker told 1 NEWS this afternoon he has had another surgery on his elbows after having them first operated on three years ago.
"Before the fight was postponed, we had a few problems with the elbows," Parker told 1 NEWS.
"Inflammation, swelling up — bad pain. It was limiting a lot of things.
"We were icing it every day, putting Deep Heat on it, finding ways to make it feel better each day."
However, despite the pain, Parker said he and trainer Kevin Barry were willing to push through it for the fight had it gone ahead with the originally-scheduled December 12 date.
"There wasn't any doubt, we would've carried on because the fight was already set. A lot of people were already tuning in for the fight and I didn't want to be the reason that the fight couldn't go ahead."
However, with Kiwi rival Fa withdrawing due to medical reasons late in November, Parker saw his chance to have surgery.
The bout is now scheduled to take place on February 27, and while Parker still isn't at 100 per cent now he believes he will be on the night. "They should've fought me before because now I have no excuses."