Dylan Cleaver: Big questions remain for Joseph Parker after eerie night

There was no knock down before lockdown.

Instead the highest-profile, all-New Zealand heavyweight fight in history went the distance, providing a gripping, closer-than-expected but not totally satisfactory end point to Auckland's latest foray into level 1 normality.

With blood streaming out of a wound above his left eye – probably caused as much by an elbow than a glove – the impressively composed Junior Fa finished vanquished but with reputation enhanced. Joseph Parker won but left too many questions unanswered: principally, why does he find it so hard to end fights against awkward opponents?

Speaking of awkward, something changed in the venue as soon as ring announcer Dan Hennessey informed the crowd that Auckland was going into another snap lockdown.

There were the obligatory boos, which turned soon after to a quiet contemplation totally out of lockstep with a fight night.

There was another eerie moment during round two of the heavyweight bout between undefeated Hemi Ahio and journeyman Julius Long. All across the packed arena phones lit up like a lurid lighting-path to lockdown as the Covid alert messages were distributed across the country.

If this was a party then the helium balloons were suddenly filled with lead.

Joseph Parker and Junior Fa trade blows. Photo / Dean Purcell

As macabre as it sounds, it was only Ahio's left hook that landed flush on Long's jaw and left him spreadeagled on the canvas that sparked the arena back into life.

Before the event, David Higgins, Parker's manager and Duco owner, talked about the cost of a delayed promotion. The chat had been arranged earlier in the week but he wouldn't talk about it until he was sure he couldn't tempt fate.

Fate, it turns out, has little respect for the charms of an undercard. Duco had worked through a few scenarios but few involved a Beehive press conference being called halfway through the card.

If the boxing felt a bit untethered from the reality of the outside world from there on in, that's no fault of the fighters. For them it was business as usual: anxieties suppressed, bodies and brains on the line for the entertainment of others, blood… sweat… fears.

And a winner in Parker. Expected, yes, but never guaranteed.

This was Fa's biggest payday by a long chalk. While the exact figures were hard to pin down, some believe his purse for entering the ring would have been equal to his 19 prizefights prior to this.

A win would have been career defining; a potential launching pad into the richer markets of North America and the United Kingdom, but suffering your first loss to one of the world's best four years into a professional career is a comma, not a full stop.

The stakes were higher for Parker. Not only did he have to win, but he was expected to win well. The former was achieved, the latter will be debated.

Joseph Parker celebrates victory over Junior Fa. Photo / Dean Purcell

Both promoter Eddie Hearn and even his trainer Kevin Barry said this week that this was "make or break". Even if those comments fall under the well-people-say-these-things-all-the-time-in-boxing category, there was some urgency for Parker after losses to Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte and a long period of inactivity.

There's a lightness about everything Parker does out of the ring, whether it's glad-handing the public or making easily digestible Instagram vignettes, but the implication was that a loss meant he was finished as a marketable, main event product was a heavy burden to carry into a ring.

A loss would have sparked a rematch clause and, in truth, a long road back to title contention, a road, should Parker have chosen to stay on it, could have led to town halls and undercards rather than the stadia he has become accustomed to.

Dereck Chisora now likely awaits in what will be a massively popular bout in London where both fighters have big fanbases, and then, maybe, a mandatory challenge for the WBO belt he once held.

For the next seven days, however, his road back leads to home.

Just like the rest of us.