Parker KO's Flores

Joseph Parker is back on the winning track with a third round controversial win in their heavyweight clash against Alexander Flores at Horncastle Arena in Christchurch..

With 2:51 remaining in round 3 , referee John Conway waived off the fight and granted Parker the victory. In the same round, however, the ref had warned Parker about twice for low blows.

Did these punches effect the outcome? In my opinion the did since it happened right before the knockdown and you can see the opponent clearly drop his hand to react to the low blow.

Parker's trainer Kevin Barry was sure that the low blows in the third round would not take away from Parker's victory but they will be a major talking point. "Were there a couple of blows today that were a little low? Yea, there was a couple of low ones." "He didn't knock him out with a low blow, he knocked him out with a right hand on the chin and spun his eyes in the back of his head and he was down for about two minutes with his eye split open." "If anything it might silence a few people that said Joseph Parker's too much of a nice guy," Barry said. *This is in reference to many saying that Parker was too nice in the ring in his loss to British fighter Dillian Whyte back in August.

 Parker also believes the low blow didn't effect the fight outcome. Parker was adamant the low blows were "unintentional, but I knew there was a few". "But he didn't get knocked out with a body shot," Parker said.

 His opponent Flores was gracious in defeat but said "He hit me with a low blow. I felt it. As soon as I felt the shot I put my right hand down, he came with a left hand, then a straight right. It'll show on the video," Flores said post-fight.

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Also, earlier in the night, fellow Kiwi heavyweight Junior Fa moved to 16-0 as he defended his WBO Oriental heavyweight title with a first-round knockout over Rogelio Omar Rossi with 1:28 minutes into the fight. Fa said he wants to fight Parker in 2019 but revealed his team are already in negotiations for a major fight in the US around March.