Fa did well to get up and was saved by the bell, but was knocked down twice in the seventh, the first time via an excellent five-punch combination from Sanchez. The referee called off the fight after the second knockdown with 18 seconds left in the round.
It was the third defeat in four fights for the Aucklander.
Here is all you need to know ahead of the Day of Reckoning boxing card:
Origins
Once upon a time, Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder were champions of the world. With Parker holding the WBO belt and Wilder the WBC, there was talk were talks that the two would meet so one could come away as a unified champion and continue the quest towards total world domination.
Parker did ultimately get that chance, but against Anthony Joshua who, at the time, held the IBF, WBA and IBO belts and was also walking to the path towards becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Parker lost that fight by unanimous decision and Wilder took his business elsewhere – most notably, a trilogy against Tyson Fury who which saw Wilder, too, lose his world title.
Now, six years after those initial whispers started, the stars have aligned for the Parker and Wilder Widler to meet in the middle; Riyadh in Jeddah being the host. This time, they meet as top-ranked fighters looking to earn another chance at a world title.
How do they match up?
If you ask anyone who loosely follows heavyweight boxing about this fight, they’ll likely give you the same answer: Joseph Parker can outbox Deontay Wilder, but Deontay Wilder can put Joseph Parker to sleep with one shot.
Parker shapes up as the better technical boxer, but such has been the tale of Wilder’s career. In 46 bouts, he has was won 43 – 42 of those by knockout. There have been bouts in which he has been outboxed, too, and trailing on the scorecards. But with Wilder, it only takes one of those right hands to land for the lights to go out. You only have to look back to his second meeting with Cuban Luis Ortiz to see exactly that. In his fourth most recent bout, and the most recent of his wins that went longer than a round, Wilder was down by at least two rounds on all three scorecards heading into the seventh round. The fight never saw an eighth.
Wilder will have the reach advantage in this match-up, too, so Parker is going to have to be very smart about when he chooses to attack and can’t let himself be caught standing still. However, Parker has been the vastly more active fighter. Wilder has fought just one round in the past two years, while Parker has had three bouts in 2023 alone.
Both Parker and Wilder have been working with people well acquainted with their respective rivals. Parker has been putting in work with Tyson Fury, who holds two to KO wins and a draw in three fights against Wilder. Wilder brought former Parker rival Junior Fa - who also competes on this weekend’s card - into camp for sparring, while his he coach Malik Scott is a former sparring partner of Parker’s.
Who else is on the card?
Headlining the card is the heavyweight clash between Anthony Joshua and Otto Wallin. This card seems to have been put together essentially to build a bout between Joshua and Wilder, with reports suggesting the to two have already agreed to a 2024 meeting in Saudi Arabia provided they both win on Sunday. Neither has have easy fights, with Wallin a 26-1 boxer whose only loss is a unanimous decision to Tyson Fury in which he busted Fury open.
WBA light heavyweight champion Dimitry Bivol will also feature on the card, as will Australian cruiserweight king Jai Opetaia – who was stripped of his IBF world title because of his decision to take this weekend’s fight against Englishman Ellis Zorro (17-0) before his mandatory defence against Mairis Briedis.
How can I watch?
Day Of Reckoning is being streamed via DAZN on Sunday December 24 from 5am.
Full card
Heavyweight: Anthony Joshua v Otto Wallin
Heavyweight: Deontay Wilder v Joseph Parker (Parker ringwalk about approx. 11.15am)
Light heavyweight: Dmitrii Bivol v Lyndon Arthur
Heavyweight: Daniel Dubois v Jarrell Miller
Cruiserweight: Jai Opetaia v Ellis Zorro
Heavyweight: Arslanbek Makhmudov v Agit Kabayel
Heavyweight: Frank Sanchez v Junior Fa (Fa ringwalk about approx. 5.15am)
Heavyweight: Filip Hrgovic v Mark de Mori
