Joseph Parker kept his WBO heavyweight title in Manchester with a majority points win over Hughie Fury after a strange fight in which not much happened.
If the fight was strange, so were the scorecards.
Two of the judges had it a landslide for Parker at 118-110 and the other couldn’t separate them at 114-114.
The Furys offered a different interpretation. They celebrated wildly at the final bell, apparently convinced Hughie had done enough to win the belt, and there were bemused looks once the decision had been announced.
At ringside, there were those who had Fury winning, others had it a draw or scored for Parker.
Boxing Social had Parker three rounds up after a fight in which there were no knockdowns, no exchanges and no real drama.
The above came as no surprise.
The only way Fury was going to win the fight was by jabbing and moving and frustrating – and for a couple of rounds, it worked.
Towards the end of the second, the champion banged his gloves together and puffed out his cheeks, a sign he was feeling frustrated.
But in too many of the subsequent rounds, Fury did too little. In fairness, Parker didn’t do much either and looked short of ideas as he followed Fury throwing left hook-right hand combinations.
Mostly, the punches missed, but Parker was forcing the fight and throwing more punches and that is why he got the verdict.
That said, the 118-110 scorelines were way too wide.
In the best fight of the night, Josh Wale kept his British bantamweight title with an 11th-round KO of veteran Don Broadhurst.
The action ebbed and flowed throughout. Hurt early, Broadhurst boxed his way back into the fight superbly. Wale got on top in the middle rounds and then the challenger rallied again to close the gap on the cards.
After 10 rounds, Wale was two rounds up on two of the cards and three up on the other.
Wale landed a devastating short right hand in the 11th round that meant the cards weren’t needed.
Broadhurst collapsed onto his back, tried to get up – but couldn’t.
Evergreen Peter McDonagh edged out Shayne Singleton 96-94 in their grudge fight, courtesy of a strong finish, and many ringsiders felt Matty Fagan unlucky to drop a 10-round verdict to Joe Murray.