Parker ref continues to come under fire

Referee Giuseppe Quartarone continues to get blasted for his handling of Joseph Parker’s world unification fight with the highly respected Ring magazine the latest to attack the Italian official’s performance.

Quartarone was widely criticised in mainstream media and by fans on social media platforms for his overly strict performance in Anthony Joshua’s unanimous points win over the Kiwi heavyweight boxer in Cardiff last Sunday.

Boxing specialist sites were just as critical and now Ring magazine, dubbed ‘‘the Bible of Boxing’’, has joined the fray, suggesting Quartarone shouldn’t be sitting by the telephone expecting a call-up to another world title fight.

While no one, including Team Parker, has questioned Joshua’s right to win via his disciplined performance, there has been frustration at the way Parker’s attempts to get past the big Brit’s long reach and fight on the inside were constantly negated by Quartarone calling for the two fighters to break.

‘‘Quartarone was overly officious throughout and broke the fighters when they were up close all too often, rending Parker’s work to get inside moot,’’ Anson Wainwright wrote for Ring magazine.

‘‘The Italian is a regular on the European scene but he looked out of his depth in this arena.

‘‘It was his first world title fight, since Juergen Braehmer-Enzo Maccarinelli, four years ago. It might take that long for his phone to ring with this type of assignment again.’’

Quartarone has already been handed his next assignment - a European female super flyweight title fight between Ashley Brace and Xenia Jorneac in Cardiff on April 14.

Parker was eager to engage Joshua in a brawl, realising this was his best chance of victory. But the skirmishes were few and far between, leaving the 78,000 crowd strangely silent.

‘‘Frankly, had this fight taken place in front of a less-forgiving Las Vegas crowd, the cat calls would have been heard by the midway stage of the bout,’’ Ring magazine said.

Joshua’s win was described as ‘‘steady without being spectacular’’ as he chose to fight at long range and keep out of trouble against the game Kiwi.

‘‘The scorecards were a little more lopsided than appeared true, 118-110 twice and 119-109. However there can be no doubt the right man won.’’

Joshua added Parker’s WBO belt to his collection that already included the IBF and WBA titles. Now he is chasing American Deontay Wilder who holds the WBC version.