Joseph Parker may have been comprehensively outpointed against Anthony Joshua on Sunday morning (NZT), but according to his camp that's in no short part due to the questionable performance of the referee.
Italian Giuseppe Quartarone has come under fire from the Kiwis who took exception with his enforcement of distance between the fighters.
Quartarone was quick to separate the two at any hint of a clinch, which restricted Parker’s ability to get close to Joshua and nullify the Englishman's considerable reach advantage as he fell to a unanimous decision loss in Cardiff.
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Parker and trainer Kevin Barry believe they may have been let down by some misunderstandings stemming from a language barrier.
"When the ref came to the back he couldn’t really speak English," Parker told media at the post-fight press conference.
"[Barry] was trying to talk to him and ask questions about how he's going to control the fight. We're not blaming the ref, but when we got on the inside and tried to work, we couldn't.
"I wanted to work on the inside more and thrown a few more punches."
Barry reiterated his fighter’s misgivings, saying he was immediately sceptical after he met with Quartarone for the standard pre-fight briefing in the dressing room.
"When obviously one guy's got the 76-inch reach and the other guy's 85, it's very important for us when we do close the distance that were able to work," said Barry.
"Unfortunately for us the ref just didn’t allow us to do that…I tried to speak to him when he came out the back and he had no idea or understanding about the question I asked him because of the language.
"I knew he was from Italy but I obviously expected we've had a guy who'd actually be able to communicate with both participants.
"I actually said to the BBBOC (British Boxing Board of Control) beforehand, 'how am I going to be able to communicate with the referee, the guy in charge of the fight?' They said 'oh, he's a very good referee.'"
Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn rubbished the claims, saying they had no issues whatsoever with the Italian's communication skills.
"The entire talk in the changing room for about two minutes of the rules was in absolutely perfect English," said Hearn.
"Sometimes the judges get complaints, sometimes the ref gets a hard time from fans and fighters but I don't really like to put a bad name on refs and judges because they're there to do their job," added Joshua.
"Parker's trainer should have advised him of ways to avoid getting disciplined, that's his job. Not to go against the referee but to find a way around the referee and what he's doing."
Despite their complaints, Barry conceded Parker lost to the superior fighter in Joshua.
"I think today we were beaten by a better, bigger man.
"I was impressed by some of the things he did. He held his hands a lot better than in previous fights and he was quite hard to hit.
"We trained the whole camp to work off the double jab…it's as important an offensive weapon as a defensive tool, and [Parker] drifted away form that a little bit."
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