At the end Joseph Parker knew he had fought a poor fight for twelve rounds against Hughie Fury, knew he had shown his gaping flaws and he also knew, as he smiled when the final bell sounded, that he would still be WBO heavyweight champion when the scores were read.

Fury stood in the middle of his towering family of brothers, father, uncle and cousins in the minutes before the verdict on his efforts was announced on Saturday night in Manchester and in their bulky shadows he looked utterly exhausted. There was nothing more that he could have done and in the cold reality of heavyweight championship boxing he had fallen short, just by a tiny bit of inexperience.

One judge scored a draw and the other two went heavily for Parker with dubious tallies of ten rounds to two in favour of the New Zealander for his swings, cuffs, hefty charges and solid jabs to the arms of a retreating Fury.

It was a fight with multiple interpretations, few slugging highlights but a lot of defensive skill and some quite brilliant boxing from young Fury, who turned 23 just a few days before the first bell. Fury connected more often, no doubt, but the menace, the intent, the attacking guide to action was all Parker, mostly wild and often hitting nothing more than the expectant air inside the Manchester Arena ring. The final result was not greeted well by the members of the Fury camp and Parker exited rather sharply, stopping for one moment to speak with Mick Costello of Five Live: "I got the verdict," insisted Parker with a bit of an embarrassed smile. He did, but he was not as impressive as two of the scores suggest and there would not have been an outcry if Fury had nicked the fight by a round or two.

The pattern for twelve rounds was set in the opening round when Fury retreated, jab working sharply, feet brilliant and explored every inch of the illuminated ring as Parker, sneering not smiling, swiped away and missed. Fury did tire and Parker did get closer, but essentially it was a battle of wits and Fury, with his father Peter in the corner, won that fight without complaint. Parker should have used his feet far more, jabbed for the chest, whacked away at elbows, hips and the top of the belt to try and slow Fury's game. Fury should have shown just a bit more confidence, countered with power when he turned Parker, put together two-punch combinations far more and had the belief to go with his dancing skills. Parker often looked lost, confused and Fury, at those moments, could have put the pressure on.

There were some ugly words spoken in the aftermath by Fury's passionate promoter, Mick Hennessy, who confirmed he will lobby the WBO for a rematch and appeal the decision. Parker's people, so volatile in the days before the fight with a list of complaints, were silent in the dark Manchester night. There will be meetings, the offer of deals and no doubt talk of a second fight but Parker is no fool and he will know just how difficult a rematch will be; Fury had not fought in 17 months and during that time Parker had five fights - a sharper Fury could have won.

Parker wants a place next to Anthony Joshua, the IBF and WBA champion, and WBC belt holder Deontay Wilder, which seems reasonable, but a far more likely and marketable fight would be a vendetta return to Manchester to face Tyson Fury, cousin of Hughie, who was in the ring when it was all over screaming about the verdict. Parker against Tyson Fury, assuming all the mishaps, official hearings and his weight-loss schemes are good, is a proper fight and one to attract a horde.

Luke Campbell was knocked down in round two but fought back (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles on Saturday night Luke Campbell survived an early knockdown and lost a split decision, which was not controversial, just close and hard, to WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares. The Linares fight was a risk from the moment it was announced, but Campbell boldly fought back from a round two knockdown to make it tight, make Linares look every day of 32 years and divide the officials at the last bell. In the end the knockdown was the factor, the tiny moment that denied Campbell glory in a fight he was expected to easily lose.