Never in doubt? Yeah, right
Joseph Parker knew he’d won his fight against Hughie Fury but feared the worst as the scorecards were read out.
Parker retained his WBO world heavyweight title with a majority points decision in Manchester yesterday.
One American judge scored it a daw at 114-114, the other American had it 118-110 and controversial British official Terry O’Connor also chimed in with a decisive 118-110.
That spread had Parker worried as he waited to see who the cards favoured. Scoring controversies in other recent big fights had him fearing the worst.
So he was relieved to find the judges backed up his own instincts and that of his camp in a tense few minutes after the final bell of 12 difficult rounds before his hand was raised in victory.
‘‘I knew that I did enough to win and I knew that I won convincingly. But we are in Manchester, you know,’’ the 25-year-old said of coming through his second defence of the coveted belt and his first on foreign soil.
‘‘Some of the scorecards in other fights didn’t live up to what happened, so I thought it might have got taken away from me.
‘‘But I was confident I did the work in the ring and that I did enough to win. I’m thankful that the judges saw it my way.’’
Having been forced to fight two awkward opponents in Andy Ruiz to initially win the title and then Fury to defend it, Parker’s camp are now looking forward to dictating their own terms moving forward with a voluntary defence.
There will be disappointment Parker didn’t deliver the knockout
‘‘I knew that I did enough to win and I knew that I won convincingly. But we are in Manchester, you know.’’
Joseph Parker
blow he so wanted to make a real statement to the UK market.
But there could be no argument that he landed the power shots throughout this fight, against an opponent who was trying to counter
off the back foot all night.
‘‘I felt I had it, I put on the pressure and put in the bigger shots. He ran for the whole 12 rounds so I felt I won and won well,’’ Parker said.
‘‘He’s awkward and moves really well and uses the ring. I was trying to catch him and I did rock him a few times. But I give him credit for his movement, it was good.’’
Parker put plenty of pressure on himself with his pre-fight predictions and that was reflected in his performance at times.
‘‘I was trying for the knockout, maybe I was trying too hard. I wanted to get the knockout but in boxing, things happen and they may not go the way you wanted. Hopefully next time I’ll get that knockout,’’ he said.
‘‘I needed to punch his body more, but it’s his awkward style. I was trying to put on the pressure and chase him down but again, credit to him for his movement.’’
Parker believed there were valuable lessons to be learned as he took his record to 24-0.
‘‘There’s a lot to work on. It’s about learning, getting more experience and learning all the time. There’s a lot to take from this fight, I just have to keep working on the weaknesses I showed,’’ he said. ‘‘But I did a lot of things good and we want to focus on the positives, focus on the win.’’