By Jake Donovan

Next stop... Anthony Joshua and the IBF heavyweight title. 

Joseph Parker kept alive his mandatory title challenge after dispatching Solomon Haumono in four rounds Thursday evening at Horncastle Arena in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

An uppercut put Haumono down and out at 1:35 of round four. 

Some questioned why Parker would even take this fight, with little of it having to do with the matchup itself. The unbeaten New Zealand-bred boxer of Samoan descent - who now trains out of Las Vegas, Nevada - was coming off of a hard-fought 12-round points win over Carlos Takam in May to earn a mandatory shot at Joshua's IBF title, with such an opportunity due to take place no later than January '17.

As Joshua had a title defense versus Dominic Breazeale lined up for June at the time and possibly eying one more voluntary defense, Parker and his team made the command decision to remain active as well.

Enter Haumono, a durable 40-year old heavyweight who was never a threat to win but whose purpose was to at least provide Parker with some rounds. 

In the end, he only kept him active on the schedule. 

Parker did eat a few too many right hands for his team's liking, although at no point was ever a threat to land on the wrong end of a massive upset. Instead, it prompted the 24-year old to move around and box from the outside. 

It was a sound strategy that allowed for Parker to maintain a sizable lead on the scorecards, all while providing the crowd with an entertaining fight. Haumono danced as hard as he could to press the action but was still getting caught with power shots whenever Parker opted to plant his feet and fire away.

None were bigger than the fight-ending sequence. Parker froze Haumono in place with a stiff jab, leaving him a sitting duck for a right uppercut that put him down and out. Bruce McTavish seemed confused whether as to count to ten or wave off the fight, which ultimately came at 1:35 of round four.

Try as he might, Haumono could not disrupt future plans for a Parker title shot. A four-fight win streak comes to a close as he falls to 24-3-2 (21KOs). 

As for Parker, the future never looked brighter. The win advances his record to 20-0 (17KOs). The decision victory over Takam had disrupted a seven-fight knockout streak, but he's back on track to putting opponents to sleep heading into the biggest fight of his career. 

Whether or not it's next remains to be seen, although a tease from his team during the post-fight interview suggested there will be "a very big announcement to come on Tuesday (July 27)."

Twitter: @JakeNDaBox_v2