Joshua Buatsi (20-1, 13 KOs) defeated Zach Parker (26-2, 18 KOs) by a questionable 10-round majority decision to capture the vacant WBA International light heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
The scores
- 95-95
- 96-94
- 96-94
It appears that the judges factored in all the holding and moving that Parker was doing in their scores. He outboxed Buatsi throughout the fight, but the holding and moving that he did gave the impression that he was just spoiling. Parker looked exhausted from the seventh, choosing to stay on the move and hold whenever Buatsi got close.
Results
Lyndon Arthur (25-3, 16 KOs) got off the canvas to dethrone EBU light heavyweight champion Bradley Rea (21-2, 10 KOs) by a 12-round majority decision. The scores were 114-114, 115-113, and 115-112. Boxing News 24 scored it 9-3 in favor of the 34-year-old Arthur.
Rea dropped Arthur with a left hook in round two and fought well in the third as well. Lyndon came back from the fourth round to dominate the action, staggering Rea in the 10th round with a right-hand uppercut. Interestingly, Rea played it safe in rounds 11 and 12, choosing to stay on the outside, throwing very little. He looked like he was afraid of mixing it up after being hurt in round 10 by Lyndon.
Liam Cameron (24-7-1, 10 KOs) pulled off an upset, defeating Troy Jones (13-2, 7 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision to capture the WBA Intercontinental light heavyweight titles. The scores were 97-93, 96-94, and 96-94.
Cameron was the busier fighter down the stretch, landing the harder headshots and doing a good job of avoiding the younger fighter, 27-year-old Jones’ punches.
Billy ‘Turkish Tyson’ Deniz (14-0, 5 KOs) outworked and out-punched Eworitse Ezra Arenyeka (14-2, 11 KOs), winning an eight-round points decision in light heavyweight action in the first fight of the main card. Referee Steve Gray scored it 79-74.
It was a sloppy fight by Ezra, who used a lot of needless movement in the first three rounds and rarely threw any punches. The referee, Gray, stopped the action in round one to talk to both fighters due to the lack of action. Both fighters appeared gunshy. As the fight wore on, Ezra became more comfortable, pressing the action, but missing often with his shots.
Deniz suffered a cut over his right eye in round four from a clash of heads. There were additional accidental head clashes in rounds four and five due to Ezra’s style of coming forward in a bull-like way. From rounds five through eight, it was all Deniz, with him landing the best shots, but lacking the power to hurt Ezra. Occasionally, Ezra would land beautiful right hands, but there weren’t enough of them.
