By Keith Idec

Last Saturday night, the sport was treated to one of the best heavyweight fights in recent history when Anthony Joshua stopped Wladimir Klitschko in eleven rounds.

One week later we received the polar opposite, as Joseph Parker failed to dispose of an overmatched opponent - with the lackluster contest surprisingly going the full distance.

New Zealand’s Parker (23-0, 18 KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over optional challenger Razvan Cojanu to make the first defense of his WBO heavyweight title at Spark Arena in Auckland, Parker’s hometown. The scores were 119-108, 117-110, 117-110.

The fight was more comedy than actual boxing. Cojanu (16-3, 9 KOs) was laughing, smiling, barely throwing back any punches and just hanging around, round after round. He was able to take Parker's power and was taunting the champion continuously in the fight.

Parker was visibly frustrated during the contest - as just about everyone expected the fight to be over in the early rounds. Cojanu was becoming more active around the ninth round, as the snap from Parker's punches began to evaporate. 

The remainder of the contest saw Cojanu trying to make it more of a fight, but he was being outboxed by Parker. Cojanu was never in danger of going down or getting stopped.

Cojanu was a late substitute for Hughie Fury, the mandatory challenger for Parker’s WBO heavyweight championship. England’s Fury (20-0, 10 KOs), a cousin of former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, pulled out of the fight two weeks ago, reportedly due to a lower-back injury.

Parker’s promoters questioned Fury’s injury because they sensed all along that Fury wouldn’t travel to New Zealand to challenge Parker.

The WBO permitted Parker’s handlers to arrange a fight with anyone ranked among the sanctioning organization’s top 15 heavyweight contenders because Fury withdrew on such short notice. The Romanian-born Cojanu is ranked No. 14 by the WBO, even though his resume doesn’t warrant being a world-rated contender.

The 6-feet-7½ Cojanu was one of the 6-feet-4 Parker’s sparring partners for the Fury fight, thus Parker and his trainer, Kevin Barry, were very familiar with him entering Saturday’s fight.

The fact that Cojanu got knocked out in the second round by Donovan Dennis (12-3, 10 KOs) two years ago as part of ESPN’s Boxcino tournament helped make him a suitable substitute, too. Cojanu had won each of his three bouts between his losses to Dennis and Parker, but against pedestrian opposition.

Parker made the first defense of the WBO title he won by beating American Andy Ruiz (29-1, 19 KOs) by majority decision in their 12-rounder December 10 in Auckland. Parker and Ruiz fought for the title Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) gave up last year to focus on treatment for alcoholism, drug addiction and depression.

In the co-feature of the Parker-Cojanu card, middleweight prospect Tim Tszyu (4-0, 3 KOs), who is the son of former world champion Kostya Tszyu, stopped Ivana Siau (3-7-1) in two rounds. He makes quick turnaround on May 27 in Queensland against Will Parsons (8-2).