Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker (2018)

Interesting facts

Anthony Joshua vs. Joseph Parker, billed as Road to Undisputed, was a professional boxing match contested on 31 March 2018, for the unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight championship. The event took place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Joshua won the fight by unanimous decision, marking the first time he went the distance. Two judges scored it 118–110 and the other 119–109 all in favor of Joshua

Background

It was reported that Joseph Parker's team were looking at Lucas Browne as a potential match-up if they failed to land a unification fight with Joshua. According to Parker's promoter David Higgins, a date in March 2018 was being discussed with Joshua's team, however Eddie Hearn offered an 80–20 split, which would favour Joshua.

According to a Tweet from Parker on 15 November 2017, he was offered less than half of what was paid to Charles Martin when he defended his IBF title against Joshua. The next day, Higgins told Fairfax Media that he and Hearn were still negotiating a deal that would benefit all parties. Parker stated he was willing to drop to 35% of the net profit. Higgins made a final offer to Hearn on 22 November 2017.

According to Hearn on 11 December 2017, a deal was very close to being announced with the Principality Stadium a frontrunner to host the fight. Hearn said they were over-paying Parker, with the deal being 65-35. On 28 December 2017, Higgins announced that a split had been agreed which would see Parker earn between 30–35% of the purse and the fight should take place in April 2018.

On 8 January 2018, the Principality Stadium in Cardiff was confirmed as the venue for the fight. On 14 January 2018, negotiations came to a close and the fight was officially announced to take place on 31 March in Cardiff, live on Sky Sports Box Office. In an official press release on 5 February 2018, Showtime announced they would televise the fight live in the United States.

Joshua and Parker both came in lighter compared to their respective previous bouts. Parker weighed in first at 236.7 pounds, his lightest since he fought Solomon Haumono in July 2016. Joshua weighed 242.2 pounds, his lightest since 2014 when he fought Michael Sprott.

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