It's just after 10pm local time in Auckland, New Zealand and Joseph Parker's wife, Laine, has gone into labour with their sixth child.

Still, as the former world heavyweight champion prepares to round up his kids and get the house in order before driving to the hospital, he has time for a chat, which he begins with an unnecessary apology.

"Sorry, things are starting to pick up," Parker says with a laugh. "Number six — the sixth and last. It's one more boy, I've got four girls and one boy already. So one more boy and then that's it. The tribal six, done and dusted."

Parker (36-3, 24 KOs), the ultimate family man and a much-loved figure in a sport in which it can sometimes feel a task to love even its most fearless combatants, feels and sounds like the sort of person you could go for a pint with.

That he's willing to partake in conversation about boxing, the majority of which will delve into the sport's most frustrating idiosyncrasies, hours before one of the six biggest moments of his personal life, speaks to his generous character.

There perhaps isn't a fighter on the planet today more deserving of a title shot than Parker. But, with 13 years of fighting as a professional and 39 contests under his belt, the 33-year-old knows that practising patience will reap the rewards. Bubbling with anger and frustration, on the other hand, will only sap himself of the positive energy he believes he needs in order to win a second world title.

"If you put too much energy into being frustrated, or being annoyed or whatever, then it just takes away from enjoying what I'm doing now," he tells The Ring. "I'm in a great place, in terms of family life and training life, and I have the best balance. The time to fight for a world title will come."

Parker hasn't been involved in a world title bout since he lost his WBO belt to Anthony Joshua at Cardiff's Principality Stadium in March 2018. He then lost to Dillian Whyte four months later but in 2021, Parker linked up with trainer Andy Lee and the pair have won eight of their nine fights together, the last three of which coming against Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole.

In February, Parker stopped Bakole in two rounds, but he was originally supposed to take on IBF champion Daniel Dubois. The Londoner fell ill on fight week, though, pulling out at the eleventh hour to leave Parker waiting in no man's land.

"[After the Bakole fight] I just went to Samoa to visit family, and had a bit of time in Fiji where I got to relax with more family, spend some quality time and just enjoy ourselves," he adds.

"The kids love the pool. It's like every morning I go to the buffet and I eat everything there, and then we just swim all day, we do activities. There's a lot of activities in Fiji. It's a beautiful place, and the people are lovely. We just swam every day, just enjoyed ourselves, and I made sure that I ate everything that was in the buffet, everything. Desserts ... I really enjoyed myself.

"Then I came back to New Zealand, and I was ready to get back straight into training. I have George Lockhart down here in New Zealand who does all my strength and conditioning and nutrition, and we've been just building away in the background, just building and grinding away.

"Making the shift to Andy Lee was something totally different. It sort of revamped my passion for boxing. I mean, when you're doing something for a really long time, and it's the only schedule that you've been doing, it gets a bit old. So when I made the move to Andy Lee, it gave me a bit of a buzz back to boxing, and I felt like it was a new journey, a new career.

"With George, I know that us three together make the best team, one of the best teams in the world."

Weeks after his Polynesian holiday finished, it was announced that Dubois would be returning to action, but against The Ring, WBC, WBA and WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk on July 19 at Wembley Stadium in a rematch for the undisputed titles. Parker, the WBO 'interim' titleholder, hopes to be on the undercard but the end-goal is to take on the winner, who he thinks will be the Ukrainian.

Parker says: "I feel like Dubois will be a different fighter from the first fight, but Usyk is a technician, and he knows how to break you down, I've studied a lot of his fights and he's very good with his footwork, and hand movement, and feints, shots up and down. He's a very smart and intelligent fighter.

"I think Dubois has the power and can catch him clean, but it's easier said than done. Usyk is a great mover, and he knows how to avoid getting hit, and he also knows how to hit you hard back. So I'm leaning towards an Usyk win again."

Five-and-a-half weeks ago at a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) event in Florence Italy, Parker came face-to-face with Usyk, but was shrugged off when it was suggested by the Kiwi that the pair should fight in the not-too-distant future. One day later, Usyk vs. Dubois was announced.

"I walked up to him, I said, 'You've got two fights left, you've probably got Dubois next, and you should fight me last.' And he's like, 'Nah, nah, nah.' I think with Usyk, he wants the big money fights. I think it's Dubois and he wants [Anthony] Joshua or Tyson [Fury] again. He was like 'You do your thing, don't worry, after I retire you can have your shot' or something like that.

"I would love the opportunity to test myself against him. I do believe that, at the moment, he is the best fighter, or the best heavyweight in our generation."

With the painstaking chatter of big-fight politics and missed opportunities out of the way, Parker can begin to think about family matters again. With five kids in the house and a sixth on the verge, the family home must be a chaotic one, it's put to him. But just like dad, they're using all their energy up in the ring.

"My three eldest daughters, they're doing jiu-jitsu on Monday and Friday, kickboxing on Wednesday, and then boxing on Tuesday and Thursday," he says. "So they're very active, and they're into combat sports, and learning all the crafts, how to defend themselves, and also learning technique and skills."

It's time to wrap things up, but before that, Parker parts with one final question of his own.

"Do you have any children yourself?" he asks. "Not yet," is the answer.

"If you need some help or advice, let me know, brother."