By Jim Dower: 22-year-old heavyweight prospect Joseph Parker (9-0, 8 KO’s) stayed unbeaten tonight in stopping 39-year-old veteran Brian Minto (39-8, 25 KO’s) in a 7th round retirement to capture the interim PABA heavyweight title at the Vodafone Events Center in Manukau City, New Zealand.

The 6’4” Parker showed excellent power in dropping the smaller 5’11” Minto twice in the fight with right hands to the head in putting him down in the 5th and 7th. Minto’s corner opted not to send him out for the 8th round in order to save him from taking needless punishment. Minto likely wouldn’t have made it through the 8th had he come out for that round.

Parker stalked Minto around the ring in rounds 1-7, nailing him with huge right hands and occasional left hooks. Each time Parker would land his right hand on Minto’s head, you could hear the impact sound of the shots. It was really loud.

To Minto’s credit, he was able to make it into the 7th despite taking one-way punishment for the entire fight. Minto is more of a cruiserweight rather than a heavyweight, and he just didn’t have the size to compete with the 22-year-old Parker in this fight. When Minto did land shots, he was paid for them each time by getting hammered by Parker.

Parker might make a good heavyweight someday if they could teach him some defense, and have him pace himself a little better. He’s easy to hit and he tends to tire quickly in his fights. He’s someone that will struggle as he goes up the heavyweight ladder unless he improves in this area, because his power isn’t on the same level as big punchers like Deontay Wilder. Parker is a very big puncher, but he’s the type that clubs his opponents into submission rather than knocking them out with one or two shots in the 1st round like Wilder.

Other boxing results on the card:

Robert Berridge TKO 1 Rogerio Damasco
Jeff Horn UD 12 Fernando Ferreira da Silva
Nikolas Charalampous UD 6 Aaron Lai