Joshua Buatsi hits back at Zach Parker over disputed win: 'It was a spoiler of a style'

Buatsi is still open to a rematch if both men win on Saturday, when Parker faces Umar Dzambekov in London and Buatsi fights Willy Hutchinson for the vacant WBC title.

Joshua Buatsi has told Sky Sports he cannot understand Zach Parker thinking he won their fight last year, given how often Parker ended up on the canvas.

"The Zach Parker one, it's still a good opponent but what I couldn't comprehend was being on the floor and thinking you won the fight. It was a spoiler of a style," Buatsi said.

He added: "I'm not telling you how to box or what tactics to use but simply being on the canvas so many times and thinking that's going to give you a win, it doesn't make sense."

Parker still disputes the decision. "Every man and his dog walking down the street, the first thing they say to me is you defo won the Buatsi fight. I think it's just plain to see if you got eyes," he told Sky Sports. He also said: "I'm not that bitter anymore."

Buatsi won a 10-round majority decision at Manchester's Co-op Live Arena on 1 November 2025, with scores of 96-94, 96-94 and 95-95. The Ring's ringside report said Parker "dropped to the canvas in clinches time and time again", but also that many at ringside believed he had done more than enough to win.

According to Boxing News, 75 per cent of users on its app had Parker winning and only 8 per cent had Buatsi. Carl Frampton, scoring ringside for DAZN, had it 99-91 to Parker. Told that in the ring, Buatsi replied: "Nine-one? Say less. No comment to that."

The door to a second fight is open if they both win their next fights. "I've always been open to fighting these guys and taking these fights," Buatsi said. "Let him do what he's got to do. First and foremost I have to handle business."

Parker meets Austrian Umar Dzambekov at London's Copper Box Arena on 7 November, on the card headlined by Chris Billam-Smith and Cheavon Clarke, and said of that bout: "It's probably a harder fight than the Buatsi fight." Later that night Buatsi rematches Hutchinson at the AO Arena in Manchester for the vacant WBC light-heavyweight title, having already dismissed Hutchinson's claim that he was bullied into it.

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