The Buffalo has been well and truly lowered.
Joseph Parker showed he was the real deal last night with an impressive second-round knockout of Francois Botha in Auckland.
Botha, the self-proclaimed White Buffalo, never fired a shot and was on the wrong end of a flurry of punches from the 21-year-old from South Auckland.
Parker hit him with a strong right hook with just over half a minute left in the second round of the scheduled eight-round fight and, with Botha leaning heavily on the ropes, Parker sensed the kill, and moved in with a flurry of half a dozen punches to the South African.
Not even a real buffalo could have combated those and with Botha slumped on the floor the fight was over, at the 2 min 32sec mark in the second round.
Parker said afterwards he was always confident he would be able to get one over Botha, after a great camp and great build-up.
''I'm really happy to get the win. It was a great opportunity for me to come in here and get a win and it is slowly sinking in what I have done,'' Parker said.
Parker said the first round was one where he assessed Botha and that led to a decision to go on the attack in the second round.
''Kevin [trainer Kevin Barry] said to me at the end of that first round to look for an opportunity when it comes along and you may get the result.
''I'm developing power now but still working on it. We will go into more and more detail as we go on.
''But we have to absorb this victory and then as a team to make a decision on what is next and what can be done. But this is just the beginning of a journey.''
Botha said he was surprised with the power of Parker. Once he received the big punch from Parker and was stuck on the ropes, he always knew he would be in trouble.
Botha (44) had fought against the likes of Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield and, although it was hard to compare the New Zealander with those sort of fighters, Parker had a lot of potential.
Things would have to fall for him, and Parker would have to train hard but he could go a long way, the South African said. He added Parker was a much better boxer than Sonny Bill Williams.
In the undercard, the most impressive fight was from the women, with Arlene Blencowe, from Port Macquarie, in New South Wales, grabbing a convincing victory over 10 rounds, disposing of veteran New Zealander Daniella Smith.
In the bout between the drawfs, Matthew Wood won, although there were plenty of twists, twirls and haymakers, with the vast majority of the punches finding air.
The crowd found the first round interesting but quickly lost interest.
RESULTS
On the undercard, the bouts were decided as follows:
- Marcel Botha (South Africa) defeated Jeremy Sebastian (Australia) - welterweight, unanimous decision.
- Sam Rapira (NZ) defeated Viliami Taofi (Tonga) - light heavyweight, referee stopped contest, rd 1.
- Daniella Smith (NZ) lost to Arlene Blencoe (Australia) - women's WIBA light welterweight world title, unanimous decision.
- Bryce Casey (The Rock) defeated Nickson Clark (Mai FM), unanimous decision.
- Jordan Tuigamala (NZ) defeated Joey Allen (NZ) - super middleweight, unanimous decision.
- Colin Lane lost to Matthew Wood (dwarf boxing) - unanimous decision
