Anthony Joshua didn’t excite or have it easy this afternoon at Principality Stadium, but he still emerged victorious via a wide unanimous decision. Whether or not the cards were too wide, it is hard to take issue with the British superstar getting the decision as he was drawn the twelve round distance for the first time in his twenty one fight career.
Joseph Parker opened the first round with a little aggression, but it quickly became a jab fest. Parker was much more active early, but he didn’t land much and Anthony Joshua got in a few good body shots late to steal the opener. The Kiwi kept moving well in the second, however, and did manage to find his first few right hands behind those flicking jabs. It was a really close round, but I split the first two between the two heavyweight titleholders.
Maybe sensing the lost the second round, Anthony Joshua came out looking to establish his work with more authority. He kept up a nice pace for about thirty seconds, but the fight quickly settled back into the same rhythms of the first two rounds. This round was as difficult to score as the second as Joseph Parker would come back to land a few good shots of his own. The fourth was a little more clear as only Anthony Joshua’s jabs really landed.
The WBO titleholder upped his intensity and workrate in the fifth to take a badly needed round. He landed a beautiful right hand with just under a minute to go. A brawl started to break out at the start of the sixth that Joseph Parker was getting the better of, but the referee strangely broke it up and lectured the men. Both men did good work in the best round of the fight so far. Surprisingly, Joseph Parker was taking the shots a bit better and doing a bit more damage. It was another close round, but suddenly I found myself with an even scorecard halfway through the fight.
Showtime’s Al Bernstein was calling this a “flat performance” from Anthony Joshua in the seventh and I agree. Almost all the work done in the round was Joseph Parker to the body. The British superstar and unified continued to struggle to get his offense going. He did at least get a good two hook combination in about two thirds of the way through which was enough to get the round on my card. I will note here that referee Giuseppe Quartarone was putting forth a pretty bizarre performance, breaking up non-clinches and allowing Joshua to fight with loose tape through the entire eighth round.
Round nine was like the eighth in that it was a reversion to the first few rounds of the fight. Joseph Parker did very well to nullify Anthony Joshua’s offense for the most part, but he mostly forgot to get his own going. The one or two shots AJ was able to get through were enough to carry the round. Joseph Parker was cut early in the tenth from what looked like a left hook live but was revealed to be on an elbow on the replay. Parker responded well with a body flurry, but Quartarone bizarrely broke it up. He again landed well to the body later in the round a few times while Joshua mostly whiffed on his hooks. I had this an even fight going into the championship rounds.
AJ let his hands go a little more in the eleventh. He did get clipped by a nice shot in the last fifteen seconds or so, but he clearly landed the better shots in the first championship round. The twelfth was difficult to score like so many rounds that came before it. Joseph Parker dug the body well and did that more consistently than anything Joshua did, but the few flash shots were landed by Anthony Joshua alongside the better jabs.
I scored this fight 115-113 for Anthony Joshua. Official scores came back a pretty ridiculous 119-110 and 118-110 twice. Those cards are absolute garbage, but I don’t have a problem with the British star getting the decision so I won’t make a scene about it.
The fight wasn’t exciting, but it was a good tactical fight to watch for a purist like myself. Anthony Joshua was definitely neutralized to a level we’ve never seen him by his New Zealand foe. He never got his vaunted combinations going, nor was he able to get any real consistent offense in at all. Joseph Parker, on the other hand, did quite well to work within his physical limitations to put forth a very competitive effort. Still, this feels like we might have seen the best of Parker and the worst of Joshua and I still scored it for the now three belt world heavyweight titleholder.
Post-fight Anthony Joshua went on about how he always planned to finesse this fight. He spoke on wanting to become undisputed, but mostly refused to overly engage in talking about a Deontay Wilder other than cracking a few jokes. Joseph Parker conceded that he got beat by a “better champion and bigger man.” He said he had no regrets and gave a downright classy interview. When the interview returned to Joshua, he did finally call out Wilder directly. Eddie Hearn spent the interview claiming that Wilder’s people do not want the fight.
