Former WBO heavyweight champion and currently WBO #3 ranked Joeseph Parker (28-2, 21 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten WBO #5 ranked Junior Fa (19-1, 10 KOs) to claim the vacant WBO Oriental heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. Frustrating fight that never heated up. Close rounds. A lot of clinching. Parker was the aggressor. In the end, judges had it 119-109, 115-113, 117-111 for Parker.
Unbeaten heavyweight Hemi Ahio (17-0, 12 KOs) chopped down 7’1, 326-pound Julius “The Towering Inferno” Long (18-25-1, 14 KOs) in seven entertaining rounds. 43-year-old Long dropped Ahio in round four, but then ran out of gas. Ahio finally laid out Long with a left hook at the end of round seven. Time was 2:55.
Cruiserweight David Nyika won his professional debut in just 29 seconds against Jesse Maio (3-1, 1 KO). Nyika dropped Maio and Maio didn’t beat the count complaining about being behind the head.
Cruiserweight Panuve Helu (12-2-2, 11 KOs) and Nik ‘The Greek’ Charalampous (19-3-1, 9 KOs) battled to a six round draw. Helu rocked Charalampous early. Charalampous was deducted a point for a low blow (and got away with many more). Scores were 58-56 Helu, 58-56 Charalampous, 57-57. Did the scorecards include the point deduction?
Jerome Pampellone (3-0, 2 KOs) scored a first round KO over pro-debuting Anthony Amouta in a catchweight contest at 192 pounds. Time was 2:57.
Light heavyweight John Parker (6-0, 2 KOs), the younger brother of Joseph Parker, outscored Egelani Taito (0-1) over four 40×36 3x.
No surprise
glad i didnt watch this crap
This was a horrible display of boxing in any division. The grabbing and holding falling into each other with neither man capable of making an adjust ment. This was an eye sore to watch. The absence of hooking or the use of the uppercut made it into a rumbling repetition. And, the corners. What in heaven they were telling these men? Give me one week working with each of them and you will see a change.
No, you won’t , it’s in their veins and brain to be like that. Trying to teach them to be more active and avoid clinching, furthermore more excting, is a hopeless task, is the equivalent of trying to teach a fighter like Brandon Rios or Provodnikov type learn the fine art of boxing skills (defense and nice foot work).
119 to 109 ? * and earlier a 6 round draw in which the math doesn’t add up ? As simple as the “10 point must” system would seem, it’s letting terrible judges off the hook because some marginal boxing fans may not understand exactly how a particular fight was actually scored. If instead the results were read “Judge A scores the fight 11 winning rounds for Parker and one winning round for Junior Fa” maybe it would become more transparent as to how inept judges are a CANCER to the sport of boxing.
Yet boxing refuses to do anything about this long-time scourge on the sport. Bad refereeing is what you get when judges are unaccountable and furthermore, they don’t even have to explain their scorecards so that we can at least get a sense of what they were seeing. I am a lifelong boxing fan but more and more I find myself looking forward to UFC events because of the quality matchups and generally fair results.
I HAVE BEEN WATCHING BOXING SINCE THE FIFTIES BUT THE OFFICIATING WAS BAD BACK THEN AND IT ISN’T ANY BETTER NOW.
was pretty terrible scoring that one. i had it 116-112 but 115-113 would have been ok too.
Frustrating fight to watch. Little skills shown from both fighters and more clinching than actual boxing.
Very true! I often think of John Ruiz when I see fights like this one. Holding and hitting is not boxing…It’s simply a lack of professional style!
119-109 was BS! So corrupt in NZ for boxing worse then Don King.
Yes, that scoring is very questionable.
For anyone who hasn’t seen this fight, and is somewhat curious to watch, may I suggest Dancing With The Stars?? This was a waltz at best, lots of slow dancing in the ring. I had Parker 8-4, but neither fighter deserved to win a fight that bad.
Yeah, based on the fans comments on here I’m going to skip it.
Parkers frustrating period seems to be continuing…shame as he looked like a credible talent a few years ago
This fight had all the makings of why Heavyweight boxing can be almost as boring as Nascar. Fa: 1, 2 and grab. Parker: 1, 2 and sometimes a 3 prior to the grab. It wasn’t the worst Heavyweight hugfest I’ve ever seen (or even the worst this past weekend, although at least Zhang had 3 knockdowns before holding for 7 rounds), but it definitely reminded me why I do hate the Heavyweights more often than not.
The saddest part is both Parker and Fa were clearly in good shape and should have been capable of better.
Mercy, I thought I was watching John Ruiz fighting from back in the heyday. The fight was mostly hit, hold, hit, hold, break, etc. Not really much accomplished watching a lack luster match up.
Scooby, great pull with the Ruiz reference. I definitely didn’t enjoy his fights, but there is something worth noting. Ruiz didn’t have any amount of talent to speak of. He had no choice, but to make it a rough house hugfest. Both Fa and especially, Parker have much more to work with than Ruiz. Put Ruiz’s heart in Parker and he’d be very tough to beat.
Well, that’s what I said few days ago….if you suffering from insomnia due to the pandemic. Now, if you wanna continue with the therapy, Anthony Dirrell is next.
Note:Glad I save my time for something better,
Just as I called it!
First 3 rounds were great. But then Parker couldn’t spear in anymore from fatigue. Became a snore fest from 4-11. Fa def did better than the scorecards read. Not sure Fa really has it in him to beat any top heavyweight. Parker vs Usyk could be a good one.
Parker and Usyk would be an interesting one. Why? Both fighters at heavyweight do not possess that one-crack KO power and it’s all about the accumulative effect of punches. Usyk has more gas in his tank than Parker. However, Usyk as we know loves to move laterally and lead off his punches. Usky would make Parker work for his money.
If you didn’t see this fight, let me summarize. Both guys pose, walk towards each other, throw one punch, and then clinch up for a few seconds, get broken up, repeat. The word “lumbering” would apply. Not in the sense that anything was being chopped down, though; in the sense that everything was in slow motion and it felt really lazy.
Yep, great assessment! LOL….Well said
I said before the fight these odds were way off. A bet with fa decision (+1000) and parker decision (+160) (with a small amount on a draw at +2500) could have nearly doubled your money in any case if you spread it around right. A much closer fight than the 9-1 odds. As bad as the judges can be, I think some of these oddsmakers are worse.
Surprised to see that Julius Long is still fighting. According to Boxrec, his Nationality now shows as “New Zealand”, and his last 12 fights have taken place there.
I assume he’s still being used as an opponent and at his age that’s just dangerous.
I can’t believe I stayed up until 3am watching this. This fight was horrible
Said it all before Parker should split from Kevin Barry it’s just the same old strategy Parker can still be a good contender for h/w champ but major changes has to be looked at for him to progress
Alan: I do want to believe that Parker would do much better under a better trainer. He looks like he has totally stagnated under Kevin Barry.
I scored it 7-5 for Parker and a draw would have been fine. Parker has been a huge disappointment since arriving on the world scene.
I felt he lost to Ruiz in a lackluster fight, and although the refereeing was terrible, he didn’t really go for it against Joshua. Lost to Whyte as well.
To salvage his career, he must rid himself of Kevin Barry as trainer, as he is not learning/implementing/adding anything new to his game. If you’ve seen one Joseph Parker fight, you’ve seen them all, and that is not a good sight.
Predictably mediocre fight by two mediocre fighters. I doubt that either fighter could beat Chuck Wepner, Randall “Tex” Cobb, Bernardo Mercado, or Renaldo Snipes back in the day.
They had no timing, no rhythm, no coordination of punches. They repeated the same failed effort all night. I lost my sleep trying to see a fight. Both trainers have reached their limits and should be relegated
to assistants.
Canelo pforp best fighter in the world helll ye
This was a fun and somewhat bizarre card to watch. From the U.S. you don’t get to see New Zealand fighters very often. Panuve Helu vs “the Greek” was interesting. I think Helu clearly earned that win so the Draw made me wary of the judging. I thought David Nyika was going to be a cool debut, dude looks like a possible blue chip but the loser opponent looked like he was taking a dive. Terrible way to get your first win, people prep a long time before their first fight, and this guy nicknamed “Maniac”, looks like he just hopped out of the Tattoo parlor and went down to the arena to put on some gloves and get a paycheck. David Nyika looks like with his length, reach, and build he could be a good Cruiserweight, much of that division has out of shape guys who can punch a little.
The most fun match to watch was Julius Long 7’1″ just hang out in the corner in his weak version of Ali while Hemi Ahio just worked on him for 7 rounds. You keep rooting for the tree to fall and finally it came crashing down. Looks like he has fought many names in the HW division (Long) but since 2007 he is just collecting paychecks as a opponent to other names. Since 2006 Long is 4-18-1.
Oh, I forgot to mention Parker vs Fa. Great background video showing them talking and working out. And good intros/shows going into the ring. Then they fight, clinch far too much and the performance was nothing special. Perhaps it’s because they know each other so well that they had too much respect for the other and clinched to avoid combinations. Would have preferred a better main event. Parker is a lot of hype but underwhelming. Maybe you will have a good night here, and a bad night there, but I don’t see him ever getting a major title again.