Haumono camp protests knockout loss to Parker
Solomon Haumono has launched a protest following his knockout loss to Joseph Parker in Christchurch.
Haumono was knocked down in the fourth round by a vicious right uppercut from Parker and failed to beat veteran New Zealand referee Bruce McTavish’s 10-count.
However, the result was slammed by Haumono’s trainer Justin Fortune after McTavish ruled the former rugby league international hadn’t made it back to his feet in time.
McTavish’s initial decision drew no complaint from Haumono but Fortune said it was unfair. He believed Haumono was stable on his feet after eight seconds and could fight on.
Anthony Joshua is now back in Parker’s vocabulary. New Zealand’s heavyweight contender walked the walk when he fought Haumono in the main event and now he can talk the talk, in his humble, understated way of communicating after winning by a fourth-round knockout.
Joshua, the Englishman who holds the IBF belt, was persona non grata once Parker arrived from Las Vegas to protect his status as mandatory challenger for Joshua’s crown – psychologically the focus was solely on Haumono.
And when the main event got underway so was the 24-year’s array of combinations as Haumono, the self-proclaimed Australian equivalent of movie star ‘Rocky’, was unable to live up to the billing and deny Parker his shot at the title.
A date for the Joshua-Parker fight is yet to be set, it could be late this year or early 2017, and the unbeaten Briton would not have put much, if any, credence on the unbeaten Kiwi’s 20th professional victory, his 17th by way of knockout.
Pre-fight Parker predicted he would need the early rounds to get a feel for the 40-year-old Haumono and once he found his range a tiring Haumono was visibly struggling before he was dropped by a right uppercut and failed to beat referee Bruce McTavish’s count.
Parker was in control from the opening bell and made his first inroads in the third when he landed a right and left to Haumono’s head, though he responded by winging Parker on the jaw, though the blow made no impact.
Haumono thought he had beaten the count and was fit to continue, though it would only have been only a matter of time before Parker ended proceedings before a capacity crowd of 5500.
Attention now turns to Joshua with trainer Kevin Barry, indicating an announcement on the next phase of Parker’s career will be made on Tuesday.