By Victor Kanayo
Anthony Joshua late on Saturday night at the famous 02 Arena in London, defeated his challenger, America’s Jamaine Franklin by unanimous decision 118-111; 117-111 and 117-111 in an encounter that went to the wire.
Joshua found Franklin, the ‘989 Assassin’, a hard nut to crack.
This was from round two, courtesy of the traditional quick jabs of Franklin.
AJ as Joshua is fondly known, was amazed at the resilience of Franklin to absorb his brutal upper cuts that dazzled the anxious fans who were expecting him to drop Franklin on the canvas around the 6th round.
By the 10th round, the bout became so hot, dirty and a bit rough that Franklin had to fight with much swelling around the right eye and AJ missed his way to his corner at the end of the 12th round.
AJ, former three-time World Heavyweight Champion, had hinted of retirement if he loses this bout, but may now wait for more contentions, especially a much hyped encounter between him and Andy Ruiz to determine the British Boxing Champ of all time.
After a painful loss in his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk last year, former champion Joshua was looking for his first victory since 2020 against Jermaine Franklin in London.
Franklin is a tough American heavyweight who had only lost once in 22 professional bouts and that was a close-fought majority decision defeat to Dillian Whyte in November.
While this fight was his first without at least one world title on the line in seven years, for Joshua it was still one of his most crucial. The result would determine the future direction of his career.
Ahead of the fight this week, Joshua had declared that with all the questions he’d been asking of himself, now he had found the answers.
