Boxing Latest: Joshua, Parker arrive at stadium for fight

Boxing Latest: Joshua, Parker arrive at stadium for fight

Published Mar. 31, 2018 7:35 p.m. ET

CARDIFF, Wales (AP) The Latest on the Anthony Joshua-Joseph Parker fight (all times local):

11:45 p.m.

Anthony Joshua beat Joseph Parker by unanimous decision to become a three-belt world heavyweight champion. He delivered the first loss of the New Zealander's career on Saturday.

Joshua was taken the distance for the first time in his 21-fight professional career, having won his other 20 by knockout.

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Two judges awarded the fight to Joshua 118-110. The other had it 119-109.

Joshua added Parker's WBO strap to his WBA and IBF titles, and moved within one belt of becoming the first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000.

Deontay Wilder holds the other main heavyweight belt, the WBC's, and could meet Joshua before the end of this year.

Neither fighter was knocked down in a fight that was affected by the regular interventions of Italian referee Giuseppe Quartarone.

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11:40 p.m.

Anthony Joshua has the better of the final round, connecting with a left hook but the bell sounds and some jeers ring out - seemingly directed at the referee for his constant interventions.

The fight will be decided by the judges, with Joshua looking to have edged it.

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11:36 p.m.

Joseph Parker makes it to the end of the 11th round, making this the longest of Anthony Joshua's 21 professional fights. Still, Joshua is struggling to get any meaningful punches through to Parker.

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11:32 p.m.

Anthony Joshua, who twice needs to get his gloves restrapped, is having to be patient against the fast hands and counterattacking skills of Joseph Parker.

The New Zealander is looking increasingly confident, although his bleeding left eye is starting to close by the end of the 10th round. In the 10th, Joshua connects with a left hook and a right uppercut.

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11:24 p.m.

Anthony Joshua connects with an over-the-top right before getting spoken to by Italian referee Giuseppe Quartarone, who keeps preventing a fight from happening by stepping in just before the Briton delivers an uppercut to Joseph Parker.

The referee is proving a nuisance with his interventions, one coming just as Joshua is unloading a flurry of punches.

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11:16 p.m.

Joseph Parker gets a big right through Anthony Joshua's defense midway through the fifth, sending the Briton reeling for the first time.

Parker hurt Joshua early in the sixth but the referee calls time. Joshua returns with a straight right, after which the referee comes between the fighters - admonishing both - after Parker chases Joshua around the ring, before the pair become entangled.

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11:07 p.m.

There was a clash of heads in a tight third round, after which Parker had treatment to a cut around his left eye.

Joshua took control in the fourth, using his longer reach to pick off Parker and one powerful left shook the WBO champion.

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11 p.m.

Anthony Joshua dominated the center of the ring but barely landed a punch of note on Joseph Parker in the first two rounds.

Parker is keeping Joshua alert with movement and snappy punches.

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10:30 p.m.

Ring announcer Michael Buffer just climbed through the ropes. It must be time for Joshua-Parker.

The atmosphere has gone up a notch inside the Principality Stadium with the main event minutes away.

Boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard is among those ringside.

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10:10 p.m.

Alexander Povetkin of Russia became the mandatory challenger for the WBA heavyweight belt after brutally knocking out David Price in the fifth round of an action-packed fight.

Povetkin had already floored Price with a big left hook in the third round when he sent the British boxer to the canvas with another powerful left that drew gasps from the crowd.

Price was a sitting target after being hit with a right jab from Povetkin, who becomes the WBA intercontinental champion. Povetkin, the 2004 Olympic champion, was WBA champion from 2011-13.

Price started his pro career with 15 straight wins but has now lost five times, four of the defeats coming against boxers who had served - or would go on to serve - doping bans.

The 38-year-old Povetkin twice tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in a seven-month period in 2016. Either side of that, he has won eight straight fights, leaving the loss on points to Wladimir Klitschko in 2013 as his only defeat in 35 bouts.

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9:30 p.m.

WBA bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett overcame a suspected broken right hand to beat mandatory challenger Yonfrez Parejo via a unanimous points decision in the first defense of his belt.

Burnett, who stayed undefeated after 19 fights, threw punches almost solely with his left hand in the second half of the fight. He said afterwards he thought he broke his right hand in the third round.

The Northern Irishman still won easily with all three judges.

Parejo, of Venezuela, previously won four straight fights after losing the interim WBA title.

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8:30 p.m.

British lightweight Anthony Crolla could be in sight of another world title fight, but he made heavy work of his unanimous points win over unheralded Mexican Edson Ramirez in one of the big three bouts on the undercard.

Crolla fought with a cut near his right eye from the third round and blood covered his face for large parts of an uneventful fight.

A former WBA champion, Crolla could yet get another shot at that belt - maybe against fellow Brit Luke Campbell - as it could soon become vacant.

Jorge Linares, who beat Crolla in back-to-back fights in Manchester, owns the strap and is soon fighting Vasyl Lomachenko. Linares, a 32-year-old Venezuelan, is coming toward the end of his career.

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8:15 p.m.

AJ is in the building.

Huge roars ring out inside Principality Stadium as the big screens show Joshua walking into the arena. Flanked by his team, the British fighter is all smiles.

Minutes earlier, there were boos for Joseph Parker when he came up on the screen. His mother, Sala, is already positioned ringside, with around two hours until the fight.

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5:30 p.m.

Either Anthony Joshua or Joseph Parker will be within one belt of becoming undisputed world heavyweight champion after they meet in a unification title fight in front of 78,000 fans at Principality Stadium later Saturday.

And someone's `0' has to go.

Joshua, the WBA and IBF champion from Britain, has won all 20 of his professional fights by knockout and has quickly become one of the superstars of boxing.

Parker, the WBO champion from New Zealand, has won all 24 of his fights - 18 by KO.

This is the only the second heavyweight unification title bout between unbeaten fighters, after Mike Tyson against Tony Tucker in 1987.

WBC champion Deontay Wilder holds the other main heavyweight belt, the WBC's.

The fight is scheduled to start at about 0930 GMT.

Among the eight fights on the undercard in Cardiff is the WBA bantamweight championship bout between Ryan Burnett and Venezuela's Yonfrez Parejo.

Alexander Povetkin and David Price fight for the WBA intercontinental heavyweight championship and will become the mandatory challenger for the belt.

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