Manchester Arena, Manchester, UK. In the main event of the evening, top heavyweights (over 90.7 kg) Briton Joe Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) and New Zealander Joseph Parker (30-3, 21 KOs) competed for the vacant WBO interim champion belt in a face-to-face confrontation. Oleksandr Usyk from Ukraine has a full-fledged organization belt.
The opening round went to the underdog: Parker moved well, launched several hooks around Joyce’s block. In the next three minutes, he responded well – he shot with a jab. The big guys amused the fans with a bright batch in the 3rd round – Joyce is more powerful, so he looked more confident. But the 4th round was left for the ex-champion – it was much more accurate.
The favorite often forgot about the jab, rushed into unprepared attacks, smeared a lot. Parker threw fewer punches, but looked more efficient and accurate. Joyce’s holder is simply gorgeous. In the 6th round, Joe solidly increased the density of the fight – Joseph picked up blows. Cool fight and very competitive.
It seems that Joyce finally took over the advantage: he wore out Parker with body blows and pressure, inflicted a cut near the right eye. The ex-champion scored a couple of excellent hits in the 9th round (what an uppercut was worth!), but the favorite’s hold was at some transcendental level.
Here is the mahach! Parker exploded with a series of three left hooks in a row on the jump. But Joyce still throws more punches, gets more on target. The favorite attacked the favorite in the 11th round. It seemed that the New Zealander would survive, but Joyce dropped his opponent with a left hook. Parker tried to get to his feet, but did not have time – the referee counted to ten faster.
Joyce TKO 11.
Great fight. A great victory!