With the fight in the books, many high-profile stars have taken to social media in reaction to Joseph Parker’s defeat to Anthony Joshua in Cardiff.
The Kiwi lost by unanimous decision, and became the first boxer to take Joshua the distance in his 21-fight career.
- Anthony Joshua defeats Joseph Parker via unanimous decision
- Joseph Parker vs Anthony Joshua - as it happened
Joshua immediately called out both WBC title-holder Deontay Wilder and former world champion Tyson Fury after the fight.
Fury took to his Instagram to criticise the bout’s lack of excitement, but was more forgiving of Parker.
"They’re a pair of wooden tops; they’re not even good enough to be my sparring partners the pair of them," he said.
"They’re a pair of bums, no panache, no flair, no show, waste of money.
"Parker is what Parker is, he’s a young lad trying, AJ’s a wooden top, he ain’t no superstar, I am the man.
"AJ, please don’t fight Wilder, cause he’ll knock you spark out and take my 50 million."
Wilder appeared to have accepted Joshua’s offer on his Twitter page, and like Fury, sympathised with Parker in a lacklustre affair.
"My grandma always told me if I haven’t anything nice to say, then baby don’t say nothing at all," he said.
"What a robbery…WOW".
Fury’s nephew and previous Parker opponent, Hughie took the opportunity to bring up his loss to the Kiwi.
"I beat Parker & got a raw result. I suppose AJ did better job than me??? I’m coming. Bent politics won’t hold me back," he said.
The referee for the fight, Giuseppe Quartarone received plenty of negative reaction for his performance, with many suggesting he was too overly keen to intervene when Parker and Joshua engaged in close quarters.
There was plenty of support and applauds from some of the sport’s and New Zealand’s biggest stars, including Sonny Bill Williams, Lennox Lewis, All White Chris Wood and former All Black Steven Luatua.
Newshub.
