Manchester: Joseph Parker beat Hughie Fury by a majority points decision to retain his World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight title at the Manchester Arena here, Saturday.
The New Zealander endured a frustrating night and did not look confident ahead of the scores being announced, but the judges scored it to Parker by 118-110, 118-110 with the other seeing it a 114-114 draw.
Mandatory challenger Fury, 23 last Monday, suffered his first professional defeat in 21 fights while a second title defence for Parker improved his undefeated record to 24 wins, 18 by KO.
After a scrappy fight, two judges scoring it 10 rounds to two for Parker seemed generous as the Kiwi had not seriously troubled the challenger.
“I feel I won the fight, he put up a great fight,” said Parker. “I felt the aggression was good on my side. He was really awkward and his movement was good. But I caught him with the harder punches, I felt.”
Fury boxed smartly in his first world title fight and his jab, along with his nifty footwork, frustrated Parker who was unable to land cleanly. “I don’t know what happened there with the judges,” said Fury, who is the cousin of Tyson Fury – winner of the WBO, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles.
Parker kept chasing and had more success in the second half of the fight to secure the win that keeps him in contention for bigger fights next year, possibly against Fury’s fellow Briton Anthony Joshua.
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