Zach Parker responds to Joshua Buatsi defeat after controversial scores

Zach Parker accused the judges who robbed him of victory over Joshua Buatsi of stealing his children's futures. Light-heavyweight Parker dominated Olympic bronze medalist Buatsi in Manchester on Saturday night.

He frustrated his once-beaten opponent as Buatsi struggled to adapt to his opponent's tactics. Buatsi resorted to plodding after Parker who picked off the Londoner and frustrated him by holding at every opportunity.

He arguably won the second round and improved in the middle section of the 10-round fight but Parker was a clear winner. All three judges disagreed, however, with one scoring the fight a draw while the other two gave Butasi the nod by two points.

And Parker, who has a daughter and another child on the way, was left on the verge of tears. "I'm fuming," he said through gritted teeth. "I won that fight easy. I think every single person at ringside said I won it.

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"I should be changing my daughter's life - and my unborn baby's life - and I get decisions like that. I won literally almost every round. If I outbox him and he can't even touch me, I should be champion now and going on to bigger fights.

"Everyone's got eyes, so they can see the fight. He couldn't even land a clean shot on me. I should be champion. I'm just p***ed off. I'd probably give him one round, and that was early. The later rounds, he couldn't even catch me. I was comfortable in there."

Buatsi, meanwhile, bounced back from his first career defeat by Callum Smith earlier this year. And, amid jeers from the crowd, he hit out at Parker's spoiling tactics.

"I must admit it wasn't my best performance, but what do champions do? They win. Regardless of how it comes, you take it," he said. "It's good to get back to winning ways.

"I don't know what style that is. You keep holding and going on the floor… you can't be on the floor about six times and claim you won the fight."

Buatsi will now target the winner of Anthony Yarde's world title fight with David Benavidez in Saudi Arabia later this month.

And there was more controversy earlier in the night when Liam Cameron was given the nod over Troy Jones despite the latter dominating large swathes of the fight.

Meanwhile, Eddie Hearn has identified two dates for Anthony Joshua’s potential return to the ring this year - on an undercard. Joshua has not fought since he was knocked out by Daniel Dubois at Wembley 14 months ago.

But he could be added to a card in either California on December 13 or in Riyadh on December 27.

Hearn revealed Joshua could also fight Jake Paul before Christmas with the social media star looking for an opponent to replace Gervonta Davis who has been accused of kidnapping by his ex-girlfriend.