Joshua defeats Parker via UD; calls out Wilder to decide Undisputed Heavyweight Champion

Although he wasn’t able to finish the fight within the distance for the first time in his career, Anthony Joshua was able to add yet another major title to his collection tonight in front of 80,000 plus in Cardiff, Wales.

Joshua (21-0) was able to defeat now former WBO Heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (24-1) via unanimous decision (118-110 x 2, 119-109) inside of a Principality Stadium that was packed to the gills.

The power puncher used his finesse to secure the victory against a very cautious Parker. Neither fighter threw a ton of volume in a fight that saw an unusual amount of interference from referee Giuseppe Quartarone; anytime Joshua and Parker started to get things going, Quartarone just wasn’t having it.

Joshua versus Parker marked the first time that two undefeated heavyweight fighters had competed in a title unification bout since Mike Tyson met Tony Tucker all the way back in 1987 inside of the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino (known as the Las Vegas Hilton when the fight went down). While Tyson would become the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion after defeating Tucker, Joshua still has one more hurdle in order to accomplish the same.

With a perfect record of 40-0 with 39 KO’s, Deontay Wilder holds the final major belt that Joshua would need to become the first Undisputed Heavyweight Champ since Lennox Lewis. So, what’s keeping Wilder and Joshua from sharing the ring together? It would surely be the biggest Heavyweight fight in recent history will lining the pockets of everyone involved.

“Get him in the ring and I’ll knock him spark out,” Joshua said after going the distance with Parker tonight. Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, would follow up his fighter to explain that Wilder and his camp want nothing to do with Joshua.

“Deontay was supposed to be here tonight and he pulled out,” Hearn explained to the fans in attendance. Hearn would go on to say that Wilder’s last fight was in front of 6 or 7,000 people (there were 14,000 folks in the building, but we understand his point) while Joshua fights for crowds of over 80,000.

When asked if he was interested in conquering America — the undefeated Brit has yet to fight there — Joshua said that he’d rather fight Wilder in Wembley or Cardiff.

While the post fight interviewer did his job by getting Joshua to hype up a potential Joshua-Wilder mega unification bout (Joshua also name dropped Tyson Fury as a potential future opponent) the 28-year-old would leave the fans with an all important message of unity amidst all of the recent issues going on around the world.

Wilder is expected to hold an international conference call this coming Tuesday, April 3rd, at 2:30 p.m. ET.

image credit – Matchroom Boxing