Yeah, that changed the heavyweight spectrum quickly.
In a promotion aptly named Day of Reckoning in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Deontay Wilder lost a one-sided fight against Joseph Parker. Aside from the cautious style where Wilder opted for a gun-shy counterpunching strategy, Parker was the ring general and looked more the puncher than Wilder.
The New Zealander dominated Wilder with scores of 118-111, 118-110 and 120-108.
“He did a great job avoiding a lot of my punches,” said Wilder, ESPN’s No. 3 heavyweight. “We make no excuses tonight. It was a good fight, and we’ll move on to the next thing.”
Wilder admitted during the post-fight interview that he was in a happy place now and revealed in so many words that he is considering retirement. Although that sounds like a plot twist, he also said he would fight another day. However, the fire was removed from his brand in this latest defeat, as he sounded exhausted from loss and inactivity.
New Rules
Parker (34-3, 23 KOs) upset the natural order of things for the heavyweight division. His win over Wilder eliminates the chance of the American boxer fighting Anthony Joshua next and begins what looks like the end of “The Bronze Bomber” era. Add the fact that Anthony Joshua stopped Otto Wallin in their co-main event feature bout, and the game will move on without Deontay Wilder at the top of the conversation.
“Coming into this fight, everyone had other plans, but this is God’s plan,” said Parker during the post-fight interview. “Today, what a win. Merry Christmas to us.”
Parker was quick on his feet to avoid Wilder’s perilous right hand and turned the tables in the fight, forcing Deontay to react and probably show too much respect. Parker’s looping right hand thrown over the top helped Parker avoid Wilder’s limited offense while startling him with an in-your-face attack.
Widler said in the end that his “timing was off a little bit,” but that wasn’t just in the ring. It was also with his future. With a planned March 9 fight on the books with Anthony Joshua, his lack of success eliminates or severely delays that matchup.
If Wilder does decide to call it a career, we still witnessed a fearsome run that stopped at the end of Tyson Fury’s hand but is legendary nonetheless.
