In the UK we had to endure some of the worst commentary of all time. Terrible scoring and incredible bias in almost all fights. What were the Showtime guys saying about Juicesha and what were the scorecards?
Steve Farhood scored it slightly closer, maybe three rounds for Parker with one even, but he had Joshua sweeping the final five as I recall. The commentary seemed to credit Parker's movement for befuddling AJ somewhat, but simply not punching enough to win rounds. Al Bernstein described Joshua's performance as "flat," while Paulie was more inclined to credit Parker for confusing him and crediting both guys for staying within range the entire time. They did a fine job, I thought.
Sounds about spot on. Here we had Adam Smith creaming himself over a “boxing masterclass”. Anytime Parker landed Smith said “this is why AJ is so exciting” lmfao. They didn’t give Parker much credit, barely acknowledged his bodyshots although they did chastise the referee. Froch had it 10-2 IIRC.
The Showtime crew, with Al Bernstein taking the lead and repeatedly coming back to it, were all over the ref’s performance ... basically saying he was doing everything he could to keep a fight from breaking out in the ring. They (rightfully) torched him.
Couldn't hear much of it over me and the people I had over bitching about the fight. Doubt this fight made any boxing fans. I think the showtime guys had it about even after 6 or 7.
Joshua actually out landed Parker on bodyshots. I had Parker winning 3 rounds and can easily see why judges only gave him 2.
There were a lot of 10-10 rounds in there. Even though Parker was on the backfoot most of the rounds he was actually the aggressor in large spells. The Sky crew made it seem as though Juicesha was winning his rounds by a landslide. He was eeking then out. Fury won rounds more convincingly against Wlad
Didn't see any even rounds myself, thought this fight was easy to score, providing you don't have some bias agenda. Parker did nothing, he fought cautious, almost scared. He gained some confidence in rounds 5 and 6, then ate a hard jab and then that confidence disappeared again. Looked to me like he was too worried about Joshua's power to implement his ambush boxing plan and instead settled for an easy decision loss to save face. I think Joshua is going to end up having more of these fights, he beats the fight out of his opponents. Parkers facial expression said it all after he ate his first hard jab.
I thought the crew were very objective. Both Al and Paulie gave credit to Parker for keeping Joshua off balance all night. They both I believe gave Joshua the nod because he came on strong (or less weak IMO) in the last 3 or 4 rounds. Farhood had Joshua winning. All three commented many times about the incompetent Italian ref, although Paulie jokingly told Al to lay off his "paisan". Ranello screamed and was obnoxious as he usually is.
One of them should have told Barry to protest the earliest unwarranted breaks. Parker's best chance to win was to smother AJs power while being in range to drill the body and throw punches in combination. But seems Barry's plan was to utilize Joey Ps faster hands from the outside as if AJ were Chisora or Povetkin
