Joseph Parker won the interim WBO heavyweight title as he defeated Zhilei Zhang by majority decision on the Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou card in Saudi Arabia.
It wasn’t the best fight between the two men, with Parker also having to overcome being knocked down twice during the bout, but he was able to use his boxing ability to win plenty of rounds throughout the fight.
It went to the scorecards, with the judges having it 115-111, 114-112 and 113-113, and Parker was ecstatic to get the victory.
“This is a great win. We’re on the up now. Zhang is a tough man. He knocked me down twice, but when I got back to the corner Andy told me to keep composed. Now it’s time to go home and celebrate.
“It’s an incredible feeling coming back from that loss [to Joe Joyce], what’s next is I’m fighting Zhang again. They have a rematch so we’ll do it again.”
As Parker referred to, a second fight with Zhang could now follow, after the Chinese heavyweight had a rematch clause in his contract.
Elsewhere on the Joshua vs. Ngannou card, Rey Vargas and Nick Ball had a split draw in their fight for the WBC featherweight title, and Israil Madrimov won the vacant WBA super-welterweight title after stopping Magomed Kurbanov in the fifth round.
Mark Chamberlain claimed the vacant WBA Inter-Continental lightweight title after earning a fourth round stoppage win over Gavin Gwynne, while Justis Huni beat Kevin Lerana by unanimous decision to win the vacant WBO Global heavyweight title.
Louis Greene pulled off a big upset after a first round knockout win over Jack McGann, plus there were also wins for Roman Fury, Andrii Novytskyi and Ziyad Almaayouf.