Parker wasn't robbed - he fell victim to fine margins

Joshua Buatsi won an ugly maul on Saturday night against Zach Parker in Manchester.

- STEVE BUNCE

It was not a good fight.

At the end of 10 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.