LONDON, England – Joseph Parker has vowed to box on in the wake of his crushing defeat to Fabio Wardley at o2 Arena.

Parker was leading on two of the three cards and seemed to be on his way to victory when the undefeated Englishman stopped him at 1:54 of the 11th round.

Wardley (20-0-1, 19 KOs) can now look forward to fighting undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk for all the belts in the New Year while Parker (36-4, 24 KOs) will have to regroup after suffering his first defeat since September 2022.

Parker, 33, declared around an hour after referee Howard Foster waved off the fight that he has no intention of retiring from the sport.

“Listen, it sucks losing a fight," Parker said In a side room in the bowels of the arena. "I won’t sit here and pretend I’m all happy, but life goes on. Boxing is part of what I do, but I’m very blessed with a wife, kids and a happy family.

“I want to go back to them, regroup and see what’s next, but it does suck. I’m going to continue to go on. This is just a bump in the road, and I’m still going to carry on. I felt good out there. I still have the fire in me, it still burns, and I guess I have to show that in the next fight.

“Otherwise, if it doesn’t go my way again, then it will be very difficult.”

While Wardley pushes on toward a shot at the titles, Parker will have to rebuild much like he did after he lost back-to-back fights against Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte in 2018, and was stopped by Joe Joyce in 2022.

His promoter Frank Warren said: “Whatever you want to do, we are 100 percent with you. We will sit down and work it out. You’re with us, and you know that.”

Parker was stopped on his feet as Wardley trapped him against the ropes and began to unload. There were some suggestions that Foster’s decision to step in and end the fight was premature, but Parker refused to complain about the stoppage.

“At the end of the fight, I thought I was fine," he said, "but I’m not the one reffing the fight. I thought I was doing well in the fight, but I got caught, and that’s boxing. I wanted to carry on, of course.

“I’m good. Congratulations to Fabio Wardley. He’s a warrior, he’s a tough man. Hopefully we can have a rematch.”