That’s all for tonight. Thanks as always for following along with us and be sure to read Donald McRae’s full report from ringside at the O2.
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What’s next for Joshua? To hear him say it, he still wants an all-British blockbuster with Tyson Fury.
“You know me, I try and provide for the fans,” he says. “I know who the fans want. The ball’s in [Fury’s] court. I would 100% be honored to compete for the WBC heavyweight championship of the world. I stand here and I say that proudly. That would be an honor. So wherever you are, if you’re listening. You know my management. You know my promoter. We’ve had [dialogue] before so let’s continue and hopefully we can get this on sooner than later. We’re not getting any younger.”
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“Jermaine’s got a good duck-and-dive style,” Joshua says afterward. “There was opportunities there. You know they were prepared for the fight. I should have knocked him out but what can I say now? It’s done. On to the next.”
Asked why he was unable to deliver the stoppage he’d wanted, Joshua is to the point: “When people come to fight me, I think they [muster] up a different kind of energy. I feel like he had a lot of pride. He’s here to prove himself. He ain’t here to roll over. I wish I could have knocked him out, 100%. But in the next 15 years, no one will remember that fight anyway.”
Anthony Joshua defeats Jermaine Franklin by unanimous decision!
To no one’s suprise, Anthony Joshua has won a 12-round unanimous decision over Jermaine Franklin by scores of 118-111 and 117-111 (twice).
Joshua appears somber in his corner, perhaps knowing that he’s delivered a performance that will not strike fear in the hearts of Fury, Wilder, Joyce, Anderson and the other contenders in the heavyweight cupboard.
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Round 12
Joshua appears to have Franklin hurt with about a minute to go, but Franklin makes it to the final bell. He’s gone the distance with a former two-time world champion. There’s a bit of a scuffle after the bell – more action than we saw for long stretches of this bout – with both fighters being restrained by their trainers. We’re waiting on the official scorecards. It will surely be a unanimous-decision win for Anthony Joshua, but hardly the statement win that he so desperately needed.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 119-109 Franklin)
Round 11
Joshua hurts Franklin with a body shot. Franklin is hurt! He’s grabbing and holding onto his British foe. Can Joshua finish the job? Franklin lands a sharp counter right. He looked badly hurt moments ago but has found his footing, but he keeps absorbing Joshua blows. Clearly, he will need a knockout in the 12th.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 109-100 Franklin)
Round 10
Some genuine two-way action, finally, as the fighters come together for a series of explosive exchanges from bell to bell ... with Joshua getting the better of them. Franklin does well to stay upright after eating a bounty of Joshua hooks and uppercuts that land flush.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 99-91 Franklin)
Round 9
Joshua’s jab has lost his sting. He’s pawing with it, perhaps waiting for Franklin to walk into a right hand. The round follows what’s become a familiar pattern for two and a half minutes with Joshua boxing effectively until Franklin lands a huge right hand near the end of the round that rocks the Briton and moves him backward. A big moment but the American can’t follow up on it and it’s not enough to undo Joshua’s previous work.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 89-82 Franklin)
Round 8
Joshua is in total control here, pecking away with the jab and using his 20lb weight advantage to grab and hold and lean on Franklin. Does the American have a fight-changing punch left in him?
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 79-73 Franklin)
Round 7
More of the same from Joshua, who is winning comfortably behind the jab against an opponent hand-picked to make him look good, but hardly putting fear into the fighters at or near the top of the heavyweight division today.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 69-64 Franklin)
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Round 6
Franklin’s movement has waned over the past couple of rounds, presenting Joshua with a more stationary target. A dangerous game. The Michigan man is struggling more and more to close the distance, paying a cost whenever he tries to slip inside. A valiant effort by the American but another clear round for Joshua, whose jab is winning the day.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 59-55 Franklin)
Round 5
Better from Joshua, who lands a stinging right over the top in the early stages and is starting to let that right hand go more. Franklin has taken AJ’s singular offerings well so far and it’s clearly going to require a sustained attack to get him out of there. Joshua’s jab wins him another uncontroversial round. Opening up the combination punching could close the show before long.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 49-46 Franklin)
Round 4
Joshua enjoys his best round of the fight so far by loosening up and keeping his opponent at distance. He keeps working that powerful jab from the outside, landing it almost at will and swelling Franklin’s right eye. There’s an explosive exchange along the ropes near the end of the round, but Joshua emerges unscathed.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 39-37 Franklin)
Round 3
Franklin walks right into a right hand, but keeps moving forward undeterred. Joshua has been more active and keeps landing shots, but the American has made a habit of immediately throwing back. Franklin lands a good inside left hand to the body. Joshua lands a big shot right at the bell, but Franklin walks back to his corner smiling. Another close round but Franklin has done just enough to edge it against Joshua, who looked no more comfortable in the third round than in the previous two.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 9-10 Franklin (Joshua 29-28 Franklin)
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Round 2
Franklin lands an overhand right and Joshua cracks back with a vicious counter. Franklin lands another right hand and Joshua is bleeding heavily from his nose. Joshua lands a big straight right, the best punch of the fight so far. Both men landed solid shots but nothing of major consequence. Joshua just nicks the round on our card, but still looking worryingly stiff while Franklin keeps moving confidently forward. AJ has landed 19 of 65 punches so far (including 11 of 44 jabs), according to Compubox’s punch statistics, compared to nine of 53 for Franklin.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 20-18 Franklin)
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Round 1
There’s the bell! And Joshua immediately connects with a crisp jab. The Watford man’s career-high weight cuts an intimidating presence that’s dwarfing his much-smaller American foe, but AJ does look somewhat tentative and tense as this mostly feeling-out round progresses. Joshua continues to score sparingly with the jab behind a tight guard, but any thoughts that Joshua would come out guns blazing have been swiftly dismissed.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 10-9 Franklin (Joshua 10-9 Franklin)
The fighters have been announced. The final instructions have been given. The seconds are out. We’ll pick it up with round-by-round coverage from here!
The fighters are making their entrances! First it’s Franklin, a full-time roofer and part-time boxer until last year, who goes off as a 7/1 underdog with a life-changing opportunity in front of him. And now it’s Joshua, returning to his old O2 stomping grounds for the first time since stopping Dominic Breazeale way back in 2016.
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The O2 is nearly packed to capacity as we await the fighters’ ringwalks. In the meantime, let’s pour one out for the great Ken Buchanan, the former undisputed world lightweight champion from Scotland who passed away this morning.
Fabio Wardley has seen off Michael Coffie in the final undercard bout of the night. The British heavyweight champion was unloading his American foe along the ropes when referee Harold Foster intervened at the 0:45 mark of the fourth round. A very premature stoppage, surely. Next up: Anthony Joshua v Jermaine Franklin.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the O2 Arena for tonight’s non-title fight between Anthony Joshua and Jermaine Franklin. It’s the textbook definition of a crossroads bout for Joshua, the former two-time world champion who is coming off consecutive losses to Oleksandr Usyk. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist desperately needs a career-reviving performance against Franklin, a fringe contender from Saginaw, Michigan, who earned his shot as Joshua’s comeback opponent by giving Dillian Whyte a scare in November.
“We can’t look back,” Joshua said this week. “We’re only looking forward and I see a bright future and that kind of keeps me in good spirits.”
The 33-year-old Joshua will come in at the heaviest fighting weight of his career after tipping the scales at 255.4lb (115.8kg) yesterday. That is nearly 11lb (5kg) heavier than his last fight, the August rematch against Usyk.
Franklin weighed in at 234.1lb (106.2kg), or 23lb (10.5kg) lighter than when he lost for the first time in his career to Whyte last year.
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Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Donald McRae’s lookahead to tonight’s main event at the O2.
