Joseph Parker once again proved he was a warrior and true heavyweight contender as he recovered from two knockdowns and won a majority decision over Zhilei Zhang.
Parker is now the interim WBO heavyweight champion after weathering the storm from the Chinese juggernaut to seal the victory.
Five wins in a row, including victories over Zhang and Deontay Wilder, prove Parker still has another world title shot in his locker.
Joseph Parker beats Zhilei Zhang
With both proving to be the most active heavyweights in the world, a rematch between Parker and Anthony Joshua wouldn’t be out of the question.
Everything depends on whether Joshua can pick up the vacant IBF title from Filip Hrgovic after Fury vs Usyk on May 18 splits the belts.
Parker could be elevated to full champion in late May as the current interim titleholder if the WBO sees fit. Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have a rematch clause.
This leaves the WBO, like the IBF, with a big decision on May 19.
Joshua vs Ngannou undercard results
In the back-up to the co-feature event, Nick Ball overcame a massive height advantage to defeat Rey Vargas seemingly via a unanimous decision.
After a slow start, the Liverpool man was relentless and dropped Vargas twice en route to what looked to be a superb victory.
However, scores of 114-112 to Vargas, 116-110 to Ball, and 113-113 robbed the Briton of the title via a shocking draw.
CompuBox confirmed that Ball out-landed Vargas after the sixth round of the contest.
“At the halfway point of the fight, Vargas held a 59 to 30 advantage in power punches landed and a 40 to 13 advantage in body punches landed.
“After averaging 9.8 power punches landed over rounds 1-6, Vargas’s production dipped to 7.6 power punches landed in rounds 7-12.
“Ball out-landed Vargas 58 to 47 over rounds 7-12, in addition to knocking Vargas down in rounds eight and eleven,” they pointed out.
Israil Madrimov is the new WBA Super-welterweight champion after a superlative performance against 25-0 Magomed Kurbanov.
Madrimov, labeled the new GGG, had too much power and got the stoppage.
Mark Chamberlain claimed the vacant WBA International lightweight title with a dominant victory over Gavin Gwynne.
The big puncher made a dent in Gwynne’s eye early on. From there, it was a matter of time.
A fourth-round body onslaught by Chamberlain led Gwynne’s corner to throw in the towel.
Justis Huni survived a spirited performance from Kevin Lerena to see out a unanimous decision after ten rounds.
The Aussie got his arm raised despite a brave effort from Lerena, who fought on after losing his mother.
In what would have been a fitting ending, Lerena almost got a final-round stoppage.
Huni took the verdict with scores of 96-94 [twice] and 98-92.
Early action
Before the main card began, an eliminator occurred for a shot at the WBC Silver super-welterweight title.
Jack McGann, a 9-0 pre-fight favorite from Liverpool, was stunned by Louis Greene in one round.
As both felt each other out in the early stages, Greene landed a flush right hand that had McGann all over the place.
No benefit of the doubt was given by the referee Kieran McCann, who waved off the bout to Team McGann protests.
In the opener, Ukrainian heavyweight prospect Andrii Novytskyi broke down tough Texan Juan Torres in three painful rounds.
Novytskyi took the center of the ring from the off. He picked apart Torres until a solid combination from ‘Rampage’ ended the contest at 2:43 of the third.
His opponent pushed out his gumshield as he clearly wanted no more punishment. The US-based puncher improves to 10-0.
At super-lightweight, Saudi flagbearer Ziyad Almaayouf won every round of six against Christian Flores to please the sparse crowd.
Over four three-minute rounds, Tyson Fury’s brother, Roman Fury, moved to 4-0.
With his older brother at ringside, Roman eeked out a 39-37 win to remain undefeated against a game Martin Svarc.
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