Referee Interference Overshadows Anthony Joshua’s Latest Win Against Joseph Parker

Undefeated British heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua is one step away from his quest to unify all of the heavyweight belts in boxing after he decisioned New Zealand’s Joseph Parker 118-110, 118-110, and 119-109 to take the WBO belt. The win in front of nearly 80,000 people at England’s Principality Stadium puts Joshua in possession of the WBO, WBA and IBF belts, leaving only the WBC belt held by Deontay Wilder left.

Joshua was the heavy favorite to beat Parker coming into this fight and put on a disciplined and smart performance that should cement his place as a heavyweight great, building on a gutsy come from behind finish of Wladimir Klitschko and shaky follow-up TKO of late replacement Carlos Takam.

The story of the match had Joshua controlling the fight at distance, using his reach to outpoint Parker. Parker had some success lunging in hard, but was seriously disadvantaged by a referee that insisted on breaking the two heavyweights up the moment they looked anywhere close to tying up. That led to Joshua actively wrapping Parker up whenever Parker surged, stopping the New Zealand fighter from putting together an effective attack whenever he got inside.

Joshua controlled the fight through the early rounds, holding the center of the ring and keeping Parker moving backwards. Joshua’s superior length was in play as Parker kept hitting air while Joshua managed to land a number of crisp jabs that had his opponent’s eye swelling by the third round. Urgency started to show itself on Parker’s side in round 4, and while he had some success going for the body it left him open for more damage from Joshua, who was very active and punished Parker on each exchange.

Coming into the second half of the fight Parker started to fight his way inside with lunging volleys but wasn’t able to connect with anything significant. In the sixth one of those lunges turned into a near brawl as both men continued to swing after the ref stepped in to separate them against the ropes.

Joshua continued to dominate at distance his jab, while Parker seemed content to run in and get a few shots off in the grey area moments as the ref called for separation. That led to Joshua throwing his own huge uppercut after a clear command to break in round 7, earning an angry warning from the ref. Meanwhile, we were left wondering why a ref is even in the middle of things if the boxers are still boxing.

Halfway through round 8 it became clear that the ref was on a hair trigger to separate the two boxers, and Joshua seemed to play that up several times by putting Parker in a near headlock any time things started heating up. In round 10 Joshua opened a cut over Parker’s eye. A left hook from Joshua in the 11th was the best shot of the fight, but the match ever really managed to take off due to the ref’s constant interference.

This win for Joshua sets up what will undoubtedly be a heavyweight unification superfight with the always entertaining Deontay Wilder sometime later in 2018. It’s the fight both boxers want, and there’s refreshingly little of the typical hubris and greed coming from the athletes and their managers over setting up the fight. In short, you can start getting excited because by all indications, a Joshua vs. Wilder fight is going to be next.

Joshua may not be as big of a star in America as he is in the UK, but that could change if a rumored deal with the UFC’s Dana White comes together. White knows a thing or two about North American pay-per-view and has allegedly put forward an offer that could make Joshua $500 million dollars. Whether that would require Anthony to split with his longtime UK promoter Eddie Hearns is unclear, but obviously there’s more money to go around when less fingers are in the pie.

It’s a good problem for Joshua to have. Win or lose in his quest to unify the heavyweight title, a fight with Wilder in America would rake in a ton of money and make him one of the highest paid British boxers in history.