{"id":256796,"date":"2025-11-02T03:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256796\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T03:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:57:14","slug":"buatsi-nips-parker-in-a-ho-hum-affair-at-manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/256796\/","title":{"rendered":"Buatsi Nips Parker in a Ho-Hum Affair at Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua Buatsi suffered his first loss in February, losing a 12-round decision to Callum Smith that dipped his record to 19-1. Tonight, the light heavyweight, a former Olympic bronze medalist, got back on the winning track at the expense of Zach Parker in Manchester, but it was a lackluster performance that, if anything, diminished Buatsi\u2019s standing in the court of public opinion. Two of the judges favored the 32-year-old, Ghana-born Londoner, turning in cards of 96-94, with the third judge rating it a draw (95-95). The verdict shocked the DAZN talking heads.<\/p>\n

Buatsi, who had been training in California\u2019s East Bay Area under Virgil Hunter, former trainer of Andre Ward, was making his debut as a Queensberry fighter. He was a 5\/1 favorite over Parker (26-1, 18 KOs) heading in) who had won four straight since getting upset by John Ryder, a bout in which he was pulled out after four frames with a broken hand<\/a>, a loss cost him a lucrative payday with Canelo Alvarez.<\/p>\n

Parker out-boxed Buatsi during the early milling, but couldn\u2019t sustain the momentum. During the later rounds, he fought on the retreat and frequently broke a clinch by flopping to the canvas. Promoter Frank Warren said the winner of this match would have a clear path to a world title fight, but Buatsi vs. (for example) David Morrell would be a tough sell.<\/p>\n

Other Bouts of Note<\/p>\n

There were three other light heavyweight fights on the card including a 12-rounder in the co-feature, an intra-Greater Manchester squabble between Lyndon Arthur and defending European titlist Bradley Rea (pictured below with his mentor, the late Ricky Hatton). The veteran, Lyndon Arthur, survived a second-round knockdown to score a mild upset, winning a majority decision by scores of 115-112. 115-113, and 114-114.<\/p>\n

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Rea, now 21-2, entered the contest on a seven-fight winning streak. He took an early lead after dropping Arthur to canvas with a hard left hook, but returned to his stool after round two with a damaged left eye, enabling Arthur to control the second half of the fight with uppercuts and his unerring jab.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Arthur, now 25-3 (16), remains a relevant campaigner on the domestic boxing scene. This was his best win since his 2020 upset of Anthony Yarde, a setback that Yarde avenged twice.<\/p>\n

In yet another mild upset, veteran Liam Cameron overcame a slow start (and several low blows) to cop a 10-round unanimous decision over Troy Jones (13-2). The scores were 96-94, 96-94, and a dubious 97-93.<\/p>\n

A former Commonwealth middleweight champion, Cameron, who improved to 24-7-1 (10), returned to the ring in 2023 after a five-year absence precipitated by a failed drug test. Troy Jones\u2019 original opponent, Oleksandr Usyk prodigy Daniel Lapin, backed out with an undisclosed injury, allowing Cameron, 35, to breathe new life into a flagging career.<\/p>\n

In an 8-rounder, former kickboxing standout Billy Deniz advanced to 14-0 (5) with a lackluster decision over Nigeria\u2019s Ezra Arenyeka (14-2). Deniz prevailed by a 79-74 tally on the card of referee Steve Gray.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney \/ Queensberry<\/p>\n

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Share The Sweet Science experience!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua Buatsi suffered his first loss in February, losing a 12-round decision to Callum Smith that dipped his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[33557,64,63,151474,802,151475,94351,28426,151476,151477,6492,85,151478,25288,25290,151479,151480],"class_list":["post-256796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-yarde","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-billy-deniz","tag-boxing","tag-bradley-rea","tag-john-ryder","tag-joshua-buatsi","tag-liam-cameron","tag-lyndon-arthur","tag-ricky-hatton","tag-sports","tag-steve-gray","tag-the-sweet-science","tag-tss","tag-virgil-hunter","tag-zach-parker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}