Anthony Joshua defends his interim SportsRatings Heavyweight championship belt, as well as the lesser WBA and IBF belts too, of course :) against Joseph Parker, who is #6 in the March rankings and holds the WBO belt currently. The fight takes place in Cardiff, Wales (Wales being part of the United Kingdom for the geographically-challenged).
Joshua (20-0, 20 KO) is the 2012 Olympic super-heavyweight gold medalist and a solid favorite over Parker (24-0, 18 KOs). Joshua is around a 6-1 favorite, down from nearly a 10-1 favorite overall early on.
Combined with Deontay Wilder's win over Luis Ortiz early this month, and Dillian Whyte's KO of Lucas Browne, this fight marks the 3rd big intra-top-12 bout of the month, making March of 2018 the best month for Heavyweight boxing since May of 1983. In addition, another fight on the undercard pits perennial #3 Alexander Povetkin vs. a comeback-attempting David Price (currently outside the top 100), the 2004 gold medalist vs. 2008 bronze medalist.
Coverage on Showtime in the U.S. begins at 5pm eastern time. Sky Box Office covers the bouts in the UK. It looks like Showtime might air the Povetkin bout, too, as it is about to start just a few minutes before Showtime picks things up. We'll see.
Bonus: Povetkin vs. Price round-by-round scoring: Povetkin's nose looks red pre-bout, as if he got hit during sparring. Price looks big but fairly good. Round 1: Povetkin staying out of range of Price's jab, closing in to punch. Price connects with his only decent shot at the end, but it's Povetkin's round 10-9. Round 2: Price jabbing stronger to open round 2; Povetkin moving in with combos but Price covers up well. Close round, but 20-18 Povetkin. Round 3: Price scores early but Povetkin FLATTENS Price with a counter right. He's up with 2 minutes left, with a cut but looks ok considering. Decent combo from Price. Price connects, too, sending Povetkin stumbling backward into the corner and the ref gives him a count! 9-9 round, 29-27 Povetkin. Round 4: Povetkin still looks slow, both fighters active yet tentative. Povetkin normally gets a second wind after 4 rounds, but that was possibly with some PED help...will we see the same Povetkin? 10-10; Povetkin 39-37. Round 5: Povetkin connects with a right which stops Price dead in his tracks, and follows by hitting the wide-open Price with a finishing left hook. Povetkin wins via 5th round KO. He will retain his #3 ranking for the umpteenth month (about 8 years' worth, now) regardless of the Joshua-Parker outcome.
Parker has entered the ring, Joshua is following. Then the national anthems, and fight should start in 15-20 minutes, a little before 6pm ET, 11pm UK.
Round-by-round scoring for Joshua vs. Parker:
- Round One: Jab-fest early, most just out of range. Joshua holding his guard a lot higher than Parker. Joshua might have done a little more, but it was very close and I hate it when a nothing-doing first round has an effect on things. 10-10
- Round Two: Both fighters try jab combos early, then long period of tentativeness from both to middle of round. Lots more of nothing, then a few exchanges, and the first clinch of the fight. Another tough round, mostly dead air. 20-20
- Round Three: Joshua controlling the ring, throwing jabs and gets first good combo of night. Caught in ropes, Parker clinches with a minute left. Heads clash late, Parker gets in a hook. Joshua 10-9; 30-29
- Round Four: Joshua again controls the ring early, using jab well. Big whiff left hook from Joshua. Parker just out of range with jabs, clinches again. Joshua being very conservative as he stalks Parker, backs him up to end the round. Still very close rounds, not much real is connecting. Joshua 10-9, 40-38.
- Round Five: Joshua jabs then follows with decent left hook. Parker finding it hard to close into range, but he is defending better than he has in the past. Still keeping guard low though. Parker comes off ropes charging at Joshua, they clinch. Solid combo by Parker surprises Joshua with less than a minute left. Joshua whiffs with big 1-2. Close round, we'll give it to Parker though for finishing stronger. 10-9; Joshua 49-48.
- Round Six: Joshua connects, then Parker, then HUGE brawl in clinch broken up by ref. Joshua lunging in to conect, Parker lunges in too. Fighters are toe-to-toe now, both visibly tired at midpoint of round. Joshua gets in good punch while Parker tries to brawl more. Parker hooks during clinch. Exciting if sloppy round. Joshua 10-9; 59-57
- Round Seven: Big clinch midway through round, Parker keeps punching, so Joshua throws huge uppercut before break, ref cautions both of them. Joshua jab prompts Parker lunge for clinch and more in-fighting. Stiff jab from Joshua ends the round. Joshua 10-9; 69-66.
- Round Eight: Joshua's lead is pretty tentative, not doing anything spectacular from him yet, he might have a bit more urgency. Parker looks like he has the urgency. He's jumping in the way Povetkin did against Klitschko, trying to get inside. Parker holding his own in middle of round, dodging with head movement. Flurry from Joshua, Parker survives, ref jumps in for no reason? Weird. Parker's best round in a while, no more than a draw though 10-10; Joshua 79-76
- Round Nine: Lots of dull posturing this round. Parker rushes in, heads clash, Joshua's tape is finally fixed, why didn't they do that between rounds? Awkward fight as Joshua won't let his hands fly completely. Joshua defends Parker flurry very well. Another b.s. round. 10-10; Joshua 89-86
- Round Ten: We're now at the point where a biased scorer could have Parker ahead, or Joshua very far ahead. Joshua chasing Parker with the jab, Parker has a cut now. Joshua quick to clinch when he's chasing, for some reason. Joshua attempts uppercut from clinch. Parker on ropes, jumps to clinch. Glove has dangling tape yet again for Joshua. Joshua keeps grabbing back of Parker's neck in clinch in frustration. Joshua 10-9; 99-95
- Round Eleven: Another jab-fest round, little connecting with damage, for 2 minutes; Joshua gets an uppercut then clinches for some reason. Joshua generally winning the battle of jabs. Combo by Joshua, Parker returns fire; only action the whole round. Joshua 10-9; 109-104
- Round Twelve: More awkward clinching, over and over, amidst the jabbing. Good body shot by Joshua. Another good jab sequence by Joshua, who fires back recklessly to keep Joshua off him. 30 seconds left, no urgency by either fighter, though Parker looks pretty tired. Joshua 10-9; 119-113
So we score the bout 119-113 for Joshua, which with the FOUR 10-10 rounds, could be anything from 115-113 Joshua to 119-109 Joshua. So we expect a unanimous decision for Joshua, but the results could range from very close to very wide.
Official scorecards: Well, they went wide: 118-110 x 2, and 119-109 for Joshua. That matches our widest possible result (all close rounds to Joshua), so those are defensible scores if you look at who controlled the ring and the action. Either way, the result is correct, as Joseph Parker didn't really do much in most rounds other than survive and avoid taking damage.
Joshua remains the interim SportsRatings heavyweight champion, looking to eventually become our official champ as Tyson Fury remains inactive.
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