Anthony Joshua impressed with a crushing victory, whereas rival Deontay Wilder slumped to a shock defeat on the identical night time in a heavyweight doubleheader in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua, 34 – who was thought of the favorite forward of the battle – delivered one in every of his greatest performances in current reminiscence to make it three wins from three this yr, beating opponent Otto Wallin, 33, in 5 rounds.
Meanwhile Wilder, 38 – who has claimed 42 of his 43 profession wins by knockout and is seen as one of many hardest hitters in boxing historical past – was dominated by underdog Joseph Parker, from New Zealand.
Saturday’s doubleheader was anticipated to arrange a bout between Wilder and Joshua in March, and the Brit maintained a battle remains to be doable regardless of the Bronze Bomber’s shocking loss.
“If he wants, he can come back and fight another day,” he mentioned, including he may “rip him apart right now”. “It is up to him and I am sure everybody still wants to see that fight.”
Joshua, having crushed Jermaine Franklin Jr by unanimous determination in April earlier than a seventh-round stoppage towards Robert Helenius in August, cruised to a twenty seventh profession victory.
He got here flying out of the blocks in Riyadh and inflicted harm on Wallin as early because the second spherical.
By the fifth, Joshua was throwing menacing punches with Wallin providing little in return, with the Swede’s nook calling time on the battle on the finish of the spherical.
Wilder’s battle was equally one-sided, however the much-fancied Wilder was on the receiving finish of a well-executed recreation plan from Parker, who advised Sky News he’d been coaching with Tyson Fury – the one man to have crushed Wilder earlier than Saturday.
Parker was comfortably forward on the scorecard heading into the eighth spherical, when he threw an overhand proper and a flurry of punches as Wilder held on.
The New Zealander remained composed within the tenth and eleventh, earlier than a determined Wilder got here out swinging within the closing spherical on the lookout for a knockout blow.
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But Parker by no means seemed at risk of shedding towards the previous WBC champion as he sealed an enormous upset – with the judges scoring 118-111, 118-110, 120-108 within the 31-year-old’s favour.
“My timing was off a little bit,” Wilder mentioned. “He did a great job of avoiding a lot of my punches. I did feel like I had the upper hand, but things happen. We move on to the next step.”
Source: information.sky.com”