Dillian Whyte won the fight against Joseph Parker unanimously on points. The Briton can hope for a rematch with the reigning heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Parker got off to a better start in London’s O2 Arena. The 26-year-old immediately showed himself aggressive, but then had to take a head-butt and finally went down. Whyte increasingly dominated the fight and almost knocked out in round nine, but Parker picked himself up and continued fighting.
The New Zealander even got back into the fight and scored well in the last two rounds. In the end, however, the judges unanimously decided 113:112, 115:110 and 114:111 to win for Whyte.
The 30-year-old can now hope for a rematch with Anthony Joshua. In 2015 Whyte lost by technical knockout in the seventh round. Parker also lost on points to Joshua on March 31, so Parker took off the WBO belt.
The Klitschko winner will enter the ring next time on 22 September at Wembley Stadium. Then Joshua defends his WBA, IBF, WBA and IBO World Championship titles against Alexander Povetkin. However, the fight only came about because the management of Joshua and Deontay Wilder spent too much time negotiating a fight that would have involved all the heavyweight belts.
As a result, the WBA decided that Joshua must defend his title against the Russian Povetkin in September. A time limit of 24 hours has been set for the negotiations. If no agreement had been reached again, Joshua would have lost his heavyweight title.