Anthony Oluwafemi Joshua vs. Joseph Dennis Parker - THE *OFFICIAL* POLL

Final tally: 202-39-3 (155) for AJ.

Parker finishes with an overall 15.9% share of the votes.

 

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Anthony Oluwafemi Joshua vs. Joseph Dennis Parker, 12 rounds @ heavyweight

Round 1

Joshua is jabbing the body, not fully sacrificing himself, reaching down a bit, staying tall, feeling that burn in his obliques & glut. Very lackadaisical start, really does look as if he's doing warm-up stretches instead of in a fight. Parker is flinching and reacting with a parrying jab or leading with his own while skating around Joshua, giving plenty of room. Joshua cutting the ring down and brushing off a few light hooks thrown by Parker from mid-range. 1-2 by Joshua. Another, lower, buried into the left armpit of Joshua. Parker moving jabs from outside but now putting too much space between himself and Joshua to really make serious contact.

10-9 Joshua, close, next to nothing in that


Round 2

Joshua is throwing jabs on the decline at the waistband following Parker around the ring. Not much drama here, Parker bopping around flicking jabs, experimenting with the distance, testing waters seeing how close he can get, jabbing the guard lightly. Big 1-2 by Joshua, blocked. Parker steps around him to his left and lands a right hand. Jabs swapped at mid-range and Parker is getting the best of it.

10-9 Parker

19-19


Round 3

Joshua is pushing forward, getting more aggressive in spots, but cautiously. Parker gliding adagio, jabbing the body and leaning away. Parker ducks into the ropes and crosses his arms to screen out a 1-2. Joshua marches into him and scores a short compact uppercut. Parker is carrying his left arm vertically parallel to his thigh and waiting until Joshua is just inside his jabbing range, performing a wishbone-splitting motion with his neck jerking outward and left fist shooting up so that he's simultaneously jabbing and putting his face clear of where Joshua can reach him.

10-9 Parker, close

29-28 Parker


Round 4

Joshua is jabbing up top and forcing Parker to relent, keeping him in a nomadic pattern, but all of the jabs from Joshua fall short by a good inch or two from Parker's nose. Parker meanwhile jabbing the abdomen, chest, and throat, varying between all three altitudes while standing just outside and slipping the occasional Joshua 1-2 with full-body leans sideways, holding all his neck & shoulder muscles slack for extra fluidity. Joshua scythes in a right on the hip and Parker swivels himself around to partially absorb most of it on the non-legal-scoring-area left butt cheek.

10-9 Parker

39-37 Parker


Round 5

Joshua is now double-hopping away, letting Parker be the aggressor for a spell with his jabs multiplied up top. Joshua is stepping in, jabbing with Parker, they both skim each other's faces. Parker now chases Joshua into a backward trot with a couple of blind stiff up-jabs while hiding his head in Joshua's underarm. 1-2 crashing between the guard by Parker as they circle tightly. Joshua is showing a very low output, tentative, cowed a little by the flashes of spite from Parker. All his 1-2s getting blocked. Parker jabbing the body well.

10-9 Parker

49-46 Parker


Round 6

Joshua is kerranged into the ropes, Parker jabbing and then poleaxing with the right hand. Joshua thrashes both arms down at Parker in turn and Quartarone oddly chooses this moment to separate them. Joshua is pressuring cautiously, with Parker swaggering along the ropes, daring Joshua to come at him with his arm down and chin out, then snapping quick jabs off the hip when Joshua takes a step. Joshua is hit with a charging uppercut between the elbows. Joshua tries jabbing in on Parker but his is consistently the silver medal effort in this jabbing contest.

10-9 Parker

59-55 Parker


Surprised to find Steve Farhood actually has Joshua up at this halfway point, 58-57. He gave Joshua four in a row to start off (the 2nd actually level, 10-10), only giving Parker the 5th & 6th. Atypically bad card from him.


Round 7

Joshua is feinting with the jab, sometimes committing with it but only to draw Parker out, not so much looking to score it. Parker countering with his own jab and Joshua staying coiled and ready to strike with the right hand when he does. Joshua inching closer. Big uppercut by Joshua while Parker is wresting himself from a headlock and shoeshining the body, it grazes. Quartarone despises infighting, apparently, he keeps breaking them unnecessarily at bizarre intervals. Joshua is jabbing medium-high to stall Parker's attempts to dive in and jab the body.

10-9 Joshua

68-65 Parker


Round 8

Joshua is keeping the jab raining down on Parker, from belly to nose. Parker is mostly quieted by it. Parker tentatively jabbing the body and up top in a half-ass manner with that outward flinch, but focusing more on protecting his face now than on touching Joshua with the jab. Parker forced to duck away by a Joshua 1-2 and is caught with a flush left upper-hook on the head while lowered. Quartarone is consistently interrupting every instance of infighting, to both fighters' detriment (but perhaps more so Joshua's, as his uppercuts are skimming damn close to Parker's chin, ever closer, and his momentum inside keeps getting stultified)

10-9 Joshua

77-75 Parker


Round 9

Joshua is staying very close to Parker, shepherding him across the ring with the jab. Parker is waiting, crouching, reversing, waiting, countering with a quick jab or inclining 1-2, sinking back again, waiting, sitting in an invisible wheelchair and kicking off into a slow roll, making Joshua chase, jab, miss, chase, jab, miss. Suddenly a lunge forward, a few straight power shots from Parker. Time out called for the loose tape on Joshua's glove, perfect, not like they were in the middle of anything important right then, give yourself a pat on the back Giuseppe. Joshua tries some right hands late on but doesn't lay anything flat on a legal surface.

10-9 Parker

87-84 Parker


Round 10

Joshua is jabbing over the head and scrubbing the nape as Parker works the body, and Quartarone breaks them. WHY?! Anyway... ignoring that obnoxious distraction as much as possible... Joshua is flicking jabs between the eyes, short by a couple of inches, especially when Parker does his quick pull-back, lots of head movement in erratic patterns so Joshua can't predict where it will be. Parker sweeping a few low hooks while turning Joshua, ruffling his trunks.

editor's note: my DVR recording from Showtime HD cuts out midway into Round 10. I'm watching the rest of the championship rounds on Dailymotion; appears to be Russian commentary on the МАТЧ! БОЕЦ channel.

Joshua is coming forward, bending his lead knee toward Parker, squatting in place slightly, picking off Parker's defensive flurries on his left forearm. Joshua is able to get in the hook and reassemble his guard to block Parker's counter right. Parker cut, perhaps a laceration from Joshua's loose glove tape? Unclear. Joshua not landing much clean but the busier man, and ring general. Parker hardly doing a thing offensively.

10-9 Joshua

96-94 Parker


Round 11

Joshua is positioning himself in front of Parker and swaying in place, feeding him jabs. Parker is flinching away from them, rolling in combos at the body from too far out and just grazing and then getting caught up into short-lived bear-hugs (and dusted with light rabbit punches) with Quartarone breaking them quickly. Parker on the backfoot driving jabs up into Joshua's face but mostly getting parried. Joshua hops away from a telegraphed Parker right hand lead up top. A couple of body shots by Joshua inside as he walks Parker down, nearly into the ropes.

10-9 Joshua, close

105-104 Parker


Round 12

Joshua is moving forward, jabbing at the face, well short. Parker is backing up, countering with jabs, also too far away. Nearly a full minute of nothing but no-prayer jabs, as though neither has any intention of landing whatsoever. Joshua is throwing more, and is the one showing more follow-through, stepping in on Parker and occasionally draping a right hand over his back when he ducks away from the jab. Parker is tired but clearly summoning the will to mount a final attack, rolling his fists at his sides and hopping in place by the ropes as he awaits Joshua, but ultimately doing nothing to make good on these promises to himself, fleeing the scene as the Joshua machine rumbles forward, a juggernaut of Jab-n-grab. Body taps by Joshua in the clinch, until Quartarone pushes them apart. Parker scores a jab on the trot while leaning back.

10-9 Joshua

114-114



What do you know, a goddamn draw.