AJ

Fury completed a stunning seven-round demolition of knockout specialist Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas last month to collect the WBC title, while countryman Joshua holds the other three major heavyweight belts after avenging his defeat to Andy Ruiz with a comprehensive points win last December.

Usyk, who is like Fury undefeated and has a London 2012 gold medal in common with Joshua, cleaned out the cruiserweight division and has similar designs having stepped up to take on boxing's big men.

Parker, 26, took on England's Anthony Joshua in their highly-anticipated world heavyweight title unification bout this morning.

However, Joshua beat Parker to become the unified heavyweight champion of the world.

About 250 people watched the fight at the Mangere Cosmopolitan Club.

Earlier today before the fight, Parker supporter Piarimu Niao said she was not usually a boxing fan but she was backing local boy Parker and was confident he could claim a win.

WBA, IBF and IBO heavyweight champion Joshua and WBO belt-holder Parker are set for a unification bout at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on March 31 in a hotly anticipated clash.

In November, before the fight had been agreed, the Parker camp released a video which showed Joshua being knocked down during his amateur days, as well as clips from former sparring partners claiming they had floored him.

At a media conference on Tuesday, Parker's promoter David Higgins spoke up about the issue.

Hearn confirmed on Tuesday that further talks will take place with Parker's representatives in the coming days in the hope of getting a bout agreed.

Unbeaten duo Joshua and Parker – the WBO champion – are expected to go toe-to-toe in March or April, although negotiations have thus far been protracted.

The split of the purse has been the main reported problem for getting a deal signed, but a compromise is seemingly close to being found.