Joe Parker is becoming harder and harder for Anthony Joshua to ignore.
The New Zealand boxer is the mandatory challenger to Joshua’s IBF world heavyweight title, and there has been talk of the pair meeting before the end of the year.
He earned that honour after defeating Carlos Takam in May, and extended his undefeated record to 20 career fights today after knocking out Australia’s Solomon Haumono in the fourth round of their Christchurch bout.
But the victory was not without controversy, as Haumono’s camp have launched a protest against referee Bruce McTavish, claiming he shaved four seconds off the count.
Former rugby league player Haumono seemed ready to continue after returning to his feet only for McTavish to rule that the 10-second count had elapsed.
In the ringside footage of the fight in the video below, complaints can be heard about an especially fast definition of 10 seconds.
New Zealand Professional Boxing Association timekeeper David Kettle told the Australian Daily Telegraph that the referee had missed four seconds, meaning Taumono should have been ruled to have beaten the count.
“The referee started in the wrong position, he should have started at four, but he started at seven,” Kettle added.
Footage of the knockout and the count can be seen just after the one-minute mark in the video below.
Joshua launched his first successful title defence against Dominic Breazale last month.
The Olympic gold medalist, who has won all 17 of his professional bouts by knockout, is yet to confirm the opponent for his next defence.
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