Zach Parker has endured a nightmare ten months since he broke his right hand and retired after four rounds of his WBO Interim super middleweight title fight with John Ryder last November. Boxing fans have long memories when it comes to things like that and despite spending years impressively maneuvering his way through the WBO rankings, Parker is all too aware that he needs to reintroduce himself. He began the process with a seventh round stoppage of Khalid Graidia at Wmbley Arena in London.
This week, Parker declared his intentions to mix with the biggest names at both super middleweight and light heavyweight and the 29 year old from Derby weighed in at 174lbs for his return to action. The former British champion generally switch hits but boxed almost exclusively as a southpaw. Graidia offered little but stubbornness and Parker was able to find gaps in the Frenchman’s defence from the get-go. The confidence was visibly returning to Parker who really began to ramp things up in the third, using his lateral movement to keep Graidia off balance and picking some well timed, eye catching shots.
The rounds began to follow a pattern. Parker moved around Graidia, outboxing him from the outside and scoring with both hands when he chose to plant his feet, his left uppercut and the right hook getting through. Graidia (10-13-4, 2 KO’s) is a tough man who went the distance with European champion, Dan Azeez, in July. He absorbed everything Parker threw at him but conjured up precious little in the way of offence and after seven one sided rounds, the Graidia corner decided to withdraw their man.
Parker (22-1, 16 KO’s) will be looking for a big name next but will be happy to get back in the winners circle.
Royston Barney-Smith is still just 19 years old but has clearly found his feet as a professional.
The super featherweight didn’t over complicate things during his six round fight with Engel Gomez. His southpaw jab was busy and sharp and the left hand was straight and accurate when he decided to let it go. Midway through the second round, Barney-Smith found a home for that left and whipped an uppercut into Gomez’s stomach. Gomez went down but got to his feet and made it to the end of the round.
Barney-Smith was in full flow by this stage, punishing Gomez for falling short and a left uppercut to the chin put the Nicaraguan down heavily in the third round. Gomez again got up but was made to pay for pretty much every mistake he made from that point on. Barney-Smith picked Gomez apart for the remaining three rounds, landing heavy counter shots almost at will but never really came close to putting Gomez (8-18-1, 4 KO’s) away.
Referee, Marcus McDonnell scored the fight 60-52 for Barney-Smith (7-0, 3 KO’s).