Anthony Joshua continues his climb to boxing eminence with his twenty-first straight win on Saturday night, after he successfully edged Joseph Parker on points to snatch his fourth title.
Both fighters matched each other blow for blow as each rounds progressed, and halfway into the bout the scores were square until the Nigerian-Brit made the difference with swift jabs and calculated movements leveraging on his height against Parker.
Tactics
The fight was more of a tactically arranged bout than the normal boxing match-up due to the rules set by referee, Giuseppe Quartarone. All the close range fighting was disallowed by the referee so each fighter had to depend on distance throws to outsmart the other.
Anthony Joshua at 6ft 6ins was on the gaining side with this rule as he clearly took advantage of his long reach to outpoint Parker.
The referee’s quick intervention anytime the fighters had an inside fight was a great hindrance to Parker’s game plan of tiring Joshua out and throwing heavy right jabs to knock him out.
While Parker waited for Joshua to tire out, the 28-year old kept coming right back. He was in form and Parker clearly didn’t predict Joshua’s fitness level. He paid for it in the eleventh round when, for the first time, the referee let both fighters get close up. Joshua’s punches proved the strongest after they both exchanged a couple of heavy right-hooks that visibly weakened Parker.
The judges scored the contest 118-110, twice, and 119-109 in favor of Joshua, which gave him the win to claim his fourth world title.
“Parker’s a good, young fighter. I’m sure I’ll fight him again, but let’s get Deontay Wilder over here to get an undisputed champion of the world.”
— Joshua
Feature image photo credit: www.thenational.ae
