So I just watched Wardley vs Parker. That stoppage was terrible

Spot on with this, Serge. This doesn't get brought up enough. Warrington vs Lara 1 made me feel sick with how long it went on for; it didn't help that it happened during Covid, so there was no crowd, and every punch reverberated through the TV, but Lara was like a man possessed. Warrington's injuries after that fight were up there with the worst I can remember seeing. If the roles were reversed, Foster would've stopped it in the 4th or 5th, and it would not have been a premature stoppage either. A horrible case of when boxing politics and compromised officiating can endanger lives.

 

Actually he threw a punch four punches before it was stopped.

 

These fighters are brought up knowing all they have to do to earn a TKO is to flurry the away fighter after momentarily stunning them. They adapt their style to accomplish this, and it is rewarded on the highest stage. It's a sort of regional collusion.

If the AWAY fighter tries to do the same, the home fighter of this region is given the choice to die in the ring before it's stopped.

It's so commonplace and so blatantly biased that a popular term has been coined for it.

 

Whilst IMO it was a premature stoppage, Parker - how with Andy Lee must have known Foster's propensity for this kind of thing - did nothing to clinch, take a knee or otherwise stop Wardley from continuing to throw; so he gave Foster all the in he needed.

I know that clinching is frowned on, but there is an art and skill to doing it well, and with Wardley on the verge of punching himself out, a well timed clinch from Parker with his full weight may be all he needed to weather the storm. But he didn't do it even once, he just kept backing up, and whilst Wardley was not connecting clean with most of the punches, he did connect with some of em.

So IMO it was a British Stoppage, BUT Parker and his camp could have looked at what happened in the 10th and planned a strategy for it but they did nothing but turtle and back on to the ropes for an extended period of time, with a few punches back.

I'm sure Andy Lee will look back at the fight and realise that they got the gameplan wrong and made mistakes in the 10th and 11th in terms of how they dealt with Whirlwind Wardley, and not blunting his flow of punching effectively, giving the ref a decision to make.

 

He let Josh Warrington take a hellacious beating as he was clearly out on his feet for round after round.

This contracts starkly against the Parker fight, where he was wobbled badly in one round and then on the end of some punishment at the start of the next. But he was never dropped and never looked in serious distress, this is the reason why most people had it as a bad stoppage. Parker's body language when it was stopped also showed he was fine to continue and wanted to continue.

 

All true and I was thinking the same, but the point still stands that one side has to accomodate this into their planning and the other does not.

His team could and might have planned for this Situation and failed, but the other side did not have to plan around this danger at all.

So that's plain wrong, however he could have prepared for it and known in advance.

Let two sprinters run a 100m dash against each other and I tell one of them I will laserpoint his eyes at some point in the race. Theoretically it shouldn't make much of a difference. But he has to prepare - the other does not...

--- let alone that it spoiled an amazing fight to the point that even the british fans were dead silent after the win. And we're talking about the stoppage rather than the fight/win. I was deflated after that stoppage and was backing wardley from the beginning and was amazed how much success he had against parker. He was behind on the cards and should have lost accordingly or knocked down parker for real to get a draw. His stock would have risen and there would have been another great fight added to the library of heavyweight boxing...

 

Well you're wrong 20+ punches landed in a span of 40 seconds without Parker landing a single punch back.

With the added context of Parker taking a beating in the previous round before that.

Yes you have to punch back or hold or take a knee show some better survivability otherwise you're not giving the referee much to work with.

Parker can have no complaints he was too buzzed or hurt at that point.

 

I can understand people saying it was a premature stoppage but in no way did only 3 punches land there was several punches that landed in that flurry.

 

You're right.

But Dubois doesn't pull out Parker probably loses there. If Zhang had any cardio Parker loses there. Parker got handed a gimmee fight with Wardley and got caught. At some point unfair things will happen that don't favor you. This is life. Relying on good fortune isn't reliable.

If Parker kept going he still needed to win round 12 I think.

 

Given how Fury was allowed to take an absolute hammering against Usyk, it's very easy to see this as a premature stoppage. I've never seen a fight waved off after 3 missed punches and the other guy defending himself successfully.

Should Parker have factored that in with Foster? Maybe. But the point is that he shouldn't have to, and that's why "British stoppages" exist.

 

This,,,,,

 

Fury hadn't taken a beating in the previous round like Parker did which also factors into the stoppage the overall punishment Parker took from round 10 to 11.

 

The last 3 punches didn't miss and you keep saying Wardley only landed 3 punches in 40 seconds which is untrue.

No I'm saying If you taking a beating in previous round then in the very next round take an onslaught for 40 seconds without landing a single punch back without holding or taking a knee you can't blame referee.