No excuses:
This was Joseph Parker’s Steve Hansen Lions moment. There was every reason in the world to complain, but be damned if he was going to come out a sore loser in the face of an excruciating defeat.
Just like when Hansen’s All Blacks were denied by some referee howlers in their stalemate 1-1 series against the British and Irish Lions last year, Parker had fair cause for complaint after copping a second-round headbutt that was ruled a knockdown and some fairly roughhouse tactics throughout in his unanimous points decision defeat to Dillian Whyte in London yesterday.
The defeat stings in so many ways. It is the second on the bounce for the 26-year-old classact of a New Zealander, and a serious setback in his previously ascendant heavyweight career.
It also came with a gamechanging series of events working against the KiwiSamoan.
Parker lost the fight by one point on one judge’s scorecard, by three on another’s and four on the third. In the second round, which Parker was well on the way to winning, the New Zealander copped a count for a knockdown which replays clearly showed to be the result of a headbutt (accidental or otherwise) from Whyte.
That was a three-point turnaround, and even putting aside the fact that Parker was almost certainly disoriented and displaced by the illegal blow – Whyte’s camp claimed they felled him with a left hook that led to him falling into a clash of heads – the scoring alone was dramatically skewed by that one act.
But Parker steadfastly refused to reach into the excuse bag after his defeat. That is not the sort of man he is; just as Hansen was not going to cry into his beer about the most bizarre referee decision turnaround seen in test history at Eden Park.
‘‘There are no bitter feelings from our team,’’ said Parker when asked about the fateful second round. ‘‘We did our best, I did my best, I didn’t follow the game-plan but we live to fight another day. He won today, and congratulations to him.’’