Joseph Parker believes he will be much sharper after teaming up with Andy Lee as the former world heavyweight champion admitted he had a tendency to switch off in fights out of sheer “laziness or boredom”.

The status of his first bout under his new trainer was shrouded in uncertainty, with Derek Chisora threatening to “go home” after a disagreement broke out over who will walk to the ring last in their Manchester Arena headliner.

But Parker believes the weeks building up to this Saturday have rejuvenated him after splitting with Kevin Barry last month and, following advice from Tyson Fury, linking up with the WBC heavyweight champion’s coach.

“The only concern is that he goes from one extreme to the next. When we’re being nice to each other he could have flipped and did something else.”

Chisora’s volatility was laid bare at Friday’s weigh-in, where there appeared to be no sign of any drama as the Briton scaled 250.8lbs, with his opponent coming in lighter at 241.2lbs, while the stare down passed off without incident.

But Chisora said in his final pre-fight interview on Sky Sports: “They want to do a coin flip, who comes in the ring first and who comes in the ring last. Either I come in second or I go home right now.”

Chisora (32-10, 23KOs) then stormed off, leaving his manager and former foe David Haye to conduct the coin toss, which was won by Parker, who duly elected to conduct his ring walk after his rival.

Promoter Eddie Hearn said: “I don’t think the fight’s in jeopardy but I’m very interested to see how it’s going to play out. It’ll work itself out. It might be in the next 10 minutes, it might be at five to 10 tomorrow night.”