Joshua Buatsi (20-1, 13 KOs), who surprisingly beat Zach Parker (26-1, 18 KOs) by a 10-round majority decision in a contest for the WBA International light heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
The judges ignored Parker’s masterful performance, electing to give it to Buatsi by scores of 95-95, 96-94, and 96-94.
Parker was landing beautiful shots, moving and tying up the plodding Buatsi throughout the fight. The rounds weren’t close until the eighth, and by then, Parker appeared to have done more than enough to deserve the decision.
Undercard results
Light heavyweight Lyndon Arthur (25-3, 16 KOs) showed a lot of toughness and heart, overcoming a bad start to come back to defeat EBU light heavyweight champion Bradley Rea (21-2, 10 KOs) by a 12-round majority decision.
Rea, 27, dropped Lyndon with a left hook to the head in round two, and continued to get the better of him in rounds 3 and 4. Lyndon came back strong, landing frequent straight rights to the head of Rea and vicious uppercuts.
In round 10, Lyndon connected with a right uppercut that staggered Rea. That shot took all the fight out of the EBU champion, as he did nothing in rounds 11 and 12. The judges’ scores were 114-114, 115-113, and 115-112.
In light heavyweight action, Liam Cameron (24-7-1, 10 KOs) looked impressive, beating Troy Jones (13-2, 7 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision to win the WBA Intercontinental light heavyweight titles. In the early rounds, Jones was the busier fighter, landing frequent body shots and keeping the pressure on the 35-year-old Cameron.
However, in the championship rounds, Cameron came on strong, landing clubbing punches to the head of Jones and maneuvering out of the way of his return fire. The judges’ scores were 97-93, 96-94, and 96-94.
Light heavyweight prospect Billy ‘Turkish Tyson’ Deniz (14-0, 5 KOs) dominated Eworitse Ezra Arenyeka (14-2, 11 KOs) in pounding out an eight-round points decision in a low-level, sloppy fight. There wasn’t much action between the two fighters until the fourth round, as Arenyeka, 30, was moving around the ring, throwing single right-hand pot shots.
The action heated up starting in round four with both fighters landing big shots. Deniz, 25, was the busier of the two, connecting with body shots and nice left hooks. His habit of fighting with his hands down made him an easy target for Arenyeka to nail him with a right hand.
The fight became one-sided in favor of Deniz from round seven, as hit Areyeka at will, and stayed in close to connect. Referee Steve Gray scored it 79-74.