Round-by-Round: Joshua Buatsi vs. Zach Parker | DAZN - 1 November 2025

[MightyWarrior]

Couldn’t watch the full thing, the hideous combination of the peanut brained genuinely clueless Smith on commentary and Parker’s God awful style made me hit the off button

okay if Parker deserved the decision on the cards, but he didn’t deserve a win with a style like that to my mind - boxings meant to excite - don’t wanna see him in any big fights, just put Buatsi in with someone like the monster or Beterbiev and you’re at least guaranteed an absolute fire fight.

[Cyclops]

Couldn’t watch the full thing, the hideous combination of the peanut brained genuinely clueless Smith on commentary and Parker’s God awful style made me hit the off button

okay if Parker deserved the decision on the cards, but he didn’t deserve a win with a style like that to my mind - boxings meant to excite - don’t wanna see him in any big fights, just put Buatsi in with someone like the monster or Beterbiev and you’re at least guaranteed an absolute fire fight.

He’d get murdered by either one.

[samwbr]

Promoters have got the power to give Parker a decent payday next time out. Everyone knows he was robbed blind.

[samwbr]

Couldn’t watch the full thing, the hideous combination of the peanut brained genuinely clueless Smith on commentary and Parker’s God awful style made me hit the off button

okay if Parker deserved the decision on the cards, but he didn’t deserve a win with a style like that to my mind - boxings meant to excite - don’t wanna see him in any big fights, just put Buatsi in with someone like the monster or Beterbiev and you’re at least guaranteed an absolute fire fight.

Parker won it by a mile.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Imagine we actually got Andrade vs Parker at Pride Park few years back..

[joshj909]

Looks like the judges gave Buatsi all of the closest rounds by punch stats.

[tony1234]

It's as good as a loss for Buatsi, he's going nowhere and the hype a few years ago is long gone

[joshj909]

It's as good as a loss for Buatsi, he's going nowhere and the hype a few years ago is long gone

He'll get pummeled by Benavidez. Think there's still a good fight between him and Yarde in there. I think it will be closer than I thought it would've been previously. Not sure what other big fights there are for him that he would be the favourite in anymore.

[coneye]

It was an hard watch , found myself looking at motorbike sales on my phone ,

[forcefraser]

Awful fight. As much as it pains me, you have to give that to Parker. Virtually impossible to give that to Buatsi

[gilgamesh]

Awful fight. As much as it pains me, you have to give that to Parker. Virtually impossible to give that to Buatsi

I had it for Buatsi

[gilgamesh]

I did have Troy Jones vs Liam Cameron earlier on the card though. I had that 7 rounds to 3 for Jones.

[Ezzard]

7-3 Parker. Buatsi just doesnt have it.

[gilgamesh]

7-3 Parker. Buatsi just doesnt have it.

Neither fighter was impressive. It was a dull fight. The only particularly effective punch through the fight was Buatsi's jab.

[gregregegg]

Can you rematch a fight that everyone agrees was dogshit?

[gilgamesh]

Can you rematch a fight that everyone agrees was dogshit?

They rematched Ruiz and Holyfield, but I can't see any reason to rematch this one. There was nothing much on the line, and the fight was mediocre.

[goose 5]

95-95 on my card. I wouldn't argue with 96-94 Parker but Buatsi didn't deserve that fight.

[forcefraser]

Awful fight. As much as it pains me, you have to give that to Parker. Virtually impossible to give that to Buatsi

I had it for Buatsi

Scoring is subjective, but I just don't see how Buatsi was given the nod in that fight.

Terrible fight. I put the majority of the blame on Parker for making it so ugly

[Ruthless-RKO]

Buatsi vs Parker was no robbery, and here is the awkward contradiction

Joshua Buatsi won a majority decision over Zach Parker in a moment that left many fans enraged, with the former Olympian now well placed to battle the winner of David Benavidez vs Anthony Yarde

Joshua Buatsi won an ugly maul on Saturday night against Zach Parker in Manchester. It was not a good fight.

At the end of ten rounds, two tallies sided with Buatsi as the narrow winner, and a third judge returned a drawn verdict in a set of controversial scorecards. There was a divide at ringside and there was obviously a divide in the opposing corners.

There has been outrage on social media at the decision, as there was in 2022 over Josh Taylor’s contentious win over Jack Catterall, with some ridiculous claims. Some experts were divided, but that can happen in ugly fights, mauling affairs where the men often cancel each other out. The scores were 96-94 twice for Buatsi and a drawn card of 95-95, a decision that leaves Buatsi in position to fight the winner of David Benavidez v Anthony Yarde, which takes place on 22 November.

It seems that every single close fight is called a robbery, and that is absurd. The tiny differences in the scores for Parker and Buatsi mean that a round or two either way drastically changes the scores; that is not a robbery, that is a close decision.

It is certainly not incompetence. Each week there is a new debate about judging standards - it is nothing new - whenever officials sit down at ringside to score a fight.

The furious debate can then take on the time-weary assertion that boxing is crooked, fixed and run by criminals. The promoters, managers, officials and fixers are all dragged into the nonsense where brown envelopes become the currency of corruption. There is no need for fixed fights, we have skilled matchmakers and boxers who are desperate and take risks.

And, more importantly, there is also a rule or two about coercion: the men and women susceptible to backhanders always have an addiction. They love money, drugs, gambling, booze and sex. I’m sure there are one or two I missed out. Their addiction means that they are vulnerable and also that there is never enough cash in the envelope, and that means they get discovered in their greed. It’s always money that brings people down in other sports - it is odd that it never happens in boxing, meaning that there are no brown envelopes and judges just see and hear and record different things during volatile nights in the ringside pit.

There are hundreds of tales of hardship and heartbreak in boxing and they are down to bad management, poor advice and awful legal representation. The many dreadful acts take place far from the ring. Don King, perhaps the trickiest promoter in boxing history, summed it perfectly with his timeless axiom: “ln boxing, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” King believed - and joked about it - that signing the contract for a fight was just the start of the negotiations.

A quick glance at the three judges in action on the Parker-Buatsi fight quickly exposes a glaring flaw in the so-called selection of pliant, willing and outright crooked judges. Buatsi, you see, has just signed a highly lucrative and publicised deal with allegedly, the promoter of Saturday night’s fight. Buatsi is coming off a loss in February and everyone knew the Parker fight would be gruelling. Warren obviously wanted his main fighter, Buatsi, to win and move on to a world title fight. However, the judge who scored it a draw, Grzegorz Molenda, voted against Buatsi last September in another close fight. If the business is so blindingly corrupt, why would Warren risk having Molenda at ringside? It appears to me to be an awkward contradiction in the “boxing is crooked” debate. Boxing is not fair, and it has never been fair, but that is a different and ancient debate.

[JamesPhilips]

Awful fight. As much as it pains me, you have to give that to Parker. Virtually impossible to give that to Buatsi

I had it for Buatsi

Scoring is subjective, but I just don't see how Buatsi was given the nod in that fight.

Terrible fight. I put the majority of the blame on Parker for making it so ugly

Who did DAZN have winning? Or was it another example of ‘it’s what you like isn’t it?’

[joshj909]

I had it for Buatsi

Scoring is subjective, but I just don't see how Buatsi was given the nod in that fight.

Terrible fight. I put the majority of the blame on Parker for making it so ugly

Who did DAZN have winning? Or was it another example of ‘it’s what you like isn’t it?’

Frampton had Parker winning 9 rounds I think. He said the round he gave to Buatsi was just him being generous and it was probably a Parker round.

[JamesPhilips]

Scoring is subjective, but I just don't see how Buatsi was given the nod in that fight.

Terrible fight. I put the majority of the blame on Parker for making it so ugly

Who did DAZN have winning? Or was it another example of ‘it’s what you like isn’t it?’

Frampton had Parker winning 9 rounds I think. He said the round he gave to Buatsi was just him being generous and it was probably a Parker round.

Thanks. I was half asleep and didn’t even finish watching

[gilgamesh]

Awful fight. As much as it pains me, you have to give that to Parker. Virtually impossible to give that to Buatsi

I had it for Buatsi

Scoring is subjective, but I just don't see how Buatsi was given the nod in that fight.

Terrible fight. I put the majority of the blame on Parker for making it so ugly

Look at their faces after the fight. Parker's left eye is lumped up from Buatsi's jab that landed with a good bit of consistency. Buatsi's face looked the same as it did before the fight started.

Parker was busier, and missed a sh*t load of punches, and had this herky jerky awkwardly ducking his head down, and wrapping around Buatsi's waste amateurish type of defense.

It was close. Neither fighter was impressive, but I had it 96-94 for Buatsi.

[THEBUTCH]

There's coming in with a game plan that requires discipline and restraint, but Parker & team turned up to pull off a heist !

The referee was shambolic How many times did Parker drop to the floor ?! Where were the point deductions....plural.

Parker got what he deserved out of the fight....nothing ! Unfortunately, the game is up for Parker now. He looked out of his depth against Ryder and now it's clear to see he cannot compete (without flagrant cheating/spoiling) against opponents who have competed at world level (Ryder)....or approaching world level (Buatsi).

Buatsi couldn't seem to comprehend that Parker wasn't there to fight. It was a poor night for Buatsi and i bet he wishes he'd never put pen to paper when signing to box Parker

[TheLeprechaun]

There's coming in with a game plan that requires discipline and restraint, but Parker & team turned up to pull off a heist !

The referee was shambolic How many times did Parker drop to the floor ?! Where were the point deductions....plural.

Parker got what he deserved out of the fight....nothing ! Unfortunately, the game is up for Parker now. He looked out of his depth against Ryder and now it's clear to see he cannot compete (without flagrant cheating/spoiling) against opponents who have competed at world level (Ryder)....or approaching world level (Buatsi).

Buatsi couldn't seem to comprehend that Parker wasn't there to fight. It was a poor night for Buatsi and i bet he wishes he'd never put pen to paper when signing to box Parker

Agreed. I don't mind seeing people like Parker lose decisions when they fight like that. He had an absolute robbery in his favour against Darryl Williams earlier in his career too. Absolutely zero sympathy for me. Buatsi was disappointing but Parker was very negative. I'm not high on Buatsi but against someone who comes to fight he can do better. He gets hit far too much but he low key might have the best chin in boxing right now.