Joseph Dennis Parker Lupesoliai vs. Fabio Wardley & Ezra Taylor vs. Steed Woodhall - Round by Round.

As a Parker fan, his body language and the way he reacts to getting tagged annoys me. Perhaps it’s unfair to make judgements based on that, but that’s what referees do to so you have to be conscious of it.

If you look at the slow motion of the last seconds of the fight, he’s flailing around limply with a disconsolate expression on his face and his eyes rolling around in his head, looking like a defeated man and like he’s too exhausted to protect himself properly. Then as soon as Foster jumps in, his body language becomes much more aggressive.

Ah well. Parker has always been Parker, had some good wins and some losses he should’ve won. Never truly went to ‘the next level’ like some of us wanted to believe. He’s not getting better now and I really think he should retire.

 

Idk man, I don't know Huni can take those kinds of shots.

 

The stoppage wasn't bad at all imo

 

Stoped on a deflected shot though? Let the man go out on his shield

 

To give a counterpoint to the awful stoppage, Wardley had Parker hurt in round 2 and Parker's team and the ref clearly stalled the action there when Parker's gumshield was on the floor.

 

He's a great fighter who has had a great career, wins and losses, and maybe more to come. It's ok, and you can be proud of him.

 

Yeah if he can't put someone as basic as Wardley away he probably should hang them up.

 

I think Parker made a mistake by accepting this fight, everyone thought Wardley would just be a passing fight, he should have avoided this, fought Usyk and retired with a bunch of money...

 

Part of me agrees with this but then again, if it's one shot too far we would be saying that it should have been stopped earlier. One of these has much more dire consequences. I am not excusing Foster, he's a trash referee but there was reasonable enough justification for this stoppage.

 

One thing for certain: he should never, ever fight in the UK again

 

Shield or a stretcher?

 

Also it was a continuous thing from the last 30-40 seconds of the previous round were Parker took a battering.

 

Should always give fighters the benefit of the doubt. If there were prior knockdowns I'd understand looking at stopping things, but Wardley was gassed, and Parker was still avoiding shots.

 

I mean…younger Parker lost to Whyte. Older Parker lost to Joyce. Resurgent Parker lost to Wardley. You can argue the toss about those results, but what’s clear is he’s failed to separate himself from B/B+ level fighters. Fundamentally, he’s never going to have fight changing power and nor is he great defensively and so he’s always vulnerable even against lesser boxers. I’m not sure what he has left to prove when his level is so clearly established.

 

Not even one knock down, so shield