WBO World Champion Joe Parker defeated his former sparring partner Razvan Cojanu with wide scores of 108-119, 110-117 and 110-117 to retain his title by unanimous decision in Auckland, but he didn’t look spectacular and was frustrated by Conjanu negative survival tactics and couldn’t land any of his big punches.
Romanian Conjanu was a late replacement to face Parker after undefeated British heavyweight Hughie Fury was forced to withdraw due to a back injury with just a couple of weeks to go until the fight.
Undefeated Fury remains the WBO Mandatory Challenger to Parker and will get his shot next ahead of anyone else in the division who may claim that they will fight him next. Fury is expecting to hear a rescheduled date for the fight with Parker shortly, whilst he completes his rehabilitation therapy.
With a world heavyweight scene at its most exciting for a long time, it was Parker’s big opportunity to shine and show his destructiveness, but Fury didn’t see anything to cause him any sleepless nights.
He said, “Parker, to me, didn’t look like he knew what to do with Cojanu after a few rounds when he couldn’t land his big shots and he wasn’t breaking him down,”
“He made very hard work of it and against a former sparring partner who you’d think he’d know inside out and be able to take out, but he struggled and looked poor,”
“Conjanu was useless and you could see he just wanted to survive in there, he didn’t show any ambition to win and was in there to just to make it to the end of the fight,”
“My opinion of my chances against Parker hasn’t changed after watching that. I said before I’ll knock him out and that remains the same, but now I know I’ll knock him out and take the WBO World title from him.”
