On Saturday night in Manchester, Joseph Parker beat Hughie Fury by a majority points decision to retain his World Boxing Organisation (WBO) heavyweight title at the Manchester Arena.

The New Zealander endured a frustrating night and did not look confident ahead of the scores being announced, but the judges scored it to Parker by 118-110, 118-110 with the other seeing it a 114-114 draw.

Mandatory challenger Fury suffered his professional first defeat in 21 fights while a second title defence for Parker improved his undefeated record to 24 wins, 18 by KO.

According to Parker's promoter, David Higgins, the boxer's next bout could very well take place in Japan or the United States.

The defense for Parker would come in December or the first quarter of 2018.

If the fight heads to Japan, the opponent would reportedly be 31-year-old Kyotaro Fujimoto (17-1, 9 KOs), which interests both Higgins and head trainer Kevin Barry - because of the money involved to see a Japanese fighter go for the heavyweight title for the first time.

."The world is our oyster now because we have a voluntary challenger, not a mandatory one," Higgins told reporters.

"We can negotiate multiple deals at the same time, on our terms. Kevin and I are looking at options as far afield as Japan - no Japanese heavyweight has ever fought for a world title in Tokyo - and then there's Bob Arum, our promotional partner in the United States."

Higgins lauded the British Boxing Board of Control, who oversaw the Manchester fight, for making the correct decision. He was relieved to see Parker emerge triumphant.   

After a scrappy fight, two judges scoring it 10 rounds to two for Parker seemed generous as the Kiwi had not seriously troubled the challenger.

“I feel I won the fight, he put up a great fight,” said Parker. “I felt the aggression was good on my side. He was really awkward and his movement was good. But I caught him with the harder punches, I felt.”