Joshua vs Franklin

I thought someone might’ve posted this but seeing as there was no post, I made one…

Anthony Joshua(24-3) will face Jermaine Franklin(21-1) on April 1 at O2 arena in London. This will be an non PPV bout.

Franklin was robbed against Dillian Whyte, so seems like the right fight for Joshua to get this rebuild underway.

Joshua is now trained by Derrick James.

Reasonable opponent given the circumstances. I don't think you could quite call it a comeback as such, but Joshua's stock amongst fans and (we suspect) his confidence are at the lowest they've ever been right now, so his next move was never likely to be anything more than that.

Franklin's an eminently beatable opponent but with his decent hand speed for a Heavyweight, solid-looking chin and ability to aggressively counter and try combinations at close quarters when the other guy is throwing, he has just about enough similarities with someone like Andy Ruiz to keep people thinking 'What if?' as long as the fight goes, even if he's getting a little outclassed. Suspect his dimensions will make him more toothless against Joshua than he was against Whyte, as Joshua tends to keep it more upright and try and work off straighter punches. I guess it depends on whether he's really bought into James as a trainer and if they're looking to implement a new style.

Goes without saying that if Joshua wants to serve any greater purpose than just selling Lynx box sets he needs a good showing here to go along with the win that he should almost certainly get.

Obvious fight for Joshua and tiresome cretin Hearn.....Stops Franklin and "this guy lost a split decision to Dillian Whyte" yawn yawn.....

Not sure why Franklin would want it......He's arrived on the scene losing a controversial decision to a big name....He's 29 in an era where Fury 34....Joyce 37...Wilder 37.....Whyte 34..Usyk 36 and Joshua 33 are at the top.....

Keep busy and learn for a couple of years and most of these will be gone or going and probably 4 belts will be on offer and he can pick one.....

AJ wins this for me in six but I still think everybody above bar Whyte beats him....Just don't think mentally he has it...

As for Hearn he really is tremendously tiresome...Apparently drug cheat Benn is proving his innocence while the BBBC have said they have seen no evidence....Apparently AJ has a better record than Fury despite Losing twice to a Cruiser and once to a slob.....His best win sloppy 42 year old seconds against a Fury victim...

Joshua for me is just a bully that doesn't like it up him..

Yes Promoters should big up their fighters but not to the extent where you look stupid doing it.....Where are Benn's B samples ???...If this guy comes back after sending a 267 page response to the WBC....Then everyone should go on steroids and send a 300 page response in the future....

Josh loses well there is an SM influencer somewhere waiting for a multi million dollar fight no doubt.

Be interesting to see what the longer term plan with Joshua is.

According to him and Hearn, the old 'Road to Undisputed' ambition is out the window now, and the remainder of his career is all about money and basically nothing else. Won't impress everyone saying that, and you wonder if it's conducive to giving his all or getting the best of himself, but let's be real - he's far from the only big time fighter who is only interested in that rather than glory and challenges at such a stage of their career. Difference is he's being honest about it.

Not sure where that leaves us in terms of potential opponents for his last few fights, though. A Fury fight will always be huge, so presumably that's still in mind eventually. But other than that? Whyte II does nothing for me and, I imagine, a lot of other fans. Seems doubtful they're going to be enticed by the probable next titlists such as Joyce, Makhmudov, Jalolov and Sanchez.

I mean, Hearn even hinted at trying to highjack a potential Fury-Ngannou scrap and put Joshua in there for the crossover fight....Albeit that was probably more of a wind up to Warren and Fury. Doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm for the world tour against McKean in Australia, Zhang in China etc. that he was talking about near the end of 2022.

It looks like Ruiz and Wilder are having trouble reaching a deal for their proposed fight. Personally I'd still like to see Joshua-Wilder, in fact I think it's still a mega fight by the standards of today's Heavyweight division. If indeed Joshua just wants to entertain and make big bucks in the home stretch of his career then for me that's still the fight to go after. It would be simply absurd if he retires without ever having faced either of Fury or Wilder.

I think what always irked me about Anthony was that he was fast-tracked to the world title. But I guess it's a sign of the times that a boxer can yack about how he is still learning after his professional career is a decade in.
Look at Eubank Jr or Benn Jr. What evidence was there that they understood anything about defending themselves?
Joshua's career of late makes total sense in light of the fact that there were glaring weaknesses in his armoury from the get-to.
The Frank Bruno comparisons that turn up from time to time do have a ring of truth stylistically, but Frank peaked after learning the lessons that he needed to .He was blooded against non title holder Bonecrusher Smith- a decent fighter. He held his own until he was tagged and of course he didn't know what to do. Against Witherspoon he performed well against a decent heavyweight champion. No shame at all with his performance against Lewis. He pulled it all together against McCall-again, a very decent fighter no matter how much he was denigrated as a sparring partner.

Sadly, instead of this era having promoters like Mickey Duff, who was very canny in his timing for title challenges, we have pugilist pygmies .

AJ's promoters made him very rich early on such that AJ no longer needs to fight anymore.  If there is a fault it must have been with the IBF who had Charles Martin as their world champion and an era that might be described as weak.  AJ's promoters gave Martin's team an offer they couldn't refuse and the rest is history with AJ beating mandatories and unifying the belts.  He revenged his defeat against a disappointing Ruiz Jr with a new technique for him of stick and move then went on to KO Kubrat Pulev before his two fights with Usyk, losing both on points but never being knocked down by Usyk.   AJ's amateur career was also stellar despite arriving late to boxing and in 43 amateur fights winning Silver in the 2011 World Championships and Gold in the 2012 Olympics.  Now at age 33 the issue for AJ is just going to be motivation and he is unlikely to develop new skills unless he is willing to shave off the muscle he has developed (like he did against the AJ - Ruiz Jr II).

I believe his infamous post-loss rant touched on this very thing. "Oh, he's not a twelve round fighter, blah blah". Well sorry Anthony, it's a twelve round game you're in.
If he can find the balance between muscle weight and his stamina issue, then fair play to him. Perhaps that means the stock and move and forget about the Kayo until it presents itself.
What did Brendan Ingle and Emanuel Steward do with their guys after their reliance on power tripped them up? They would go back to basics and address their amateurish tendancies. (I'm thinking of Lewis and Wlad in particular).
Who's going to speak truth to power to the merchandise monster A.J.?

So this fight is on Saturday and there seems very little interest or fanfare despite it being a Joshua fight…

Allegedly struggling to sell all the tickets as well, Jeff. And this is a Joshua who is used to selling out stadia with three or four times as many seats as the O2.

But then again, he is facing an 8-1 underdog and made himself a little unpopular with his post-fight antics against Usyk last summer. Also the first fight he's had since 2015 with no world title on the line. So to that end, not surprising that interest is relatively low.

Franklin is apparently looking leaner than usual and is more focussed than ever now that he's been thrown this big opportunity....But they all say that, don't they? Rather than the result I guess people are more interested in whether Joshua looks any different under James in his corner, and whether there'll be any call outs in the ring afterwards.

Thanks for the update on ticket sales Chris, granted no belts and Joshua as lost twice in a row. But it’s still surprising. Franklin might be a nobody, but he was robbed against Whyte. So you’d still think it’s a reasonable fight and a smaller venue would sell out.
Anyway hopefully it’s a decent fight

It has been very low key in terms of promoting this fight. AJ had been training in America and avoiding social media while Franklin likewise I imagine. All the noise has been Fury vs Usyk and that all fell flat. I would think that there are enough Londoners and visitors to London to get all the seats occupied come fight night with maybe some sold through discounting agents if necessary.

A few problems with this fight......

An embarrassed by Fury...Over weight...past it Whyte has already beaten this guy.......Joshua has lost 3 of his last 5 fights and should only really be looking at major fights or retiring....

Hearn still markets AJ as a hot prospect not the busted flush he is....

Saturday should be easy enough and then we have I expect Whyte next........When really it should be Joyce, Wilder or Fury....

Joshua comes in at a career heavy 115.7kg/255lbs
Franklin comes in at 106.1kg/233.9lbs - 23lbs lighter than previous fight.

So now we know Anthony’s tactics are to impress with the knockout. If he doesn’t bully him out of there in the first half of the fight he’s going to be taking breathers and there’s a chink more sunlight opening up for Franklin.

I know this is a non PPV event, but the fight card is truly pitiful...

Terrible stoppage, he’s got a history of this

Not an inspiring couple of rounds. Joshua probably doing the cleaner work but not much in it. Joshua's nose looks bust and his corner looked a little concerned after the first and Franklin has landed on it in the second also.

Not 100% sure Joshua fancies this.

I think it’s fair to say that he’s not going to win another world title.

Carl Froch “he’s looking flat in there”. To even stand a chance against Wilder he needs to show more street smarts than he’s showing here; getting tied up which is surprising.

He appears to leave almost every shot , just short. When he first started, he almost 'over reached' with every shot. He's just not committed, it's the old Hagler analogy of being hard to get out of bed when you wear silk pyjamas...

To be fair he did predict he’d get him in round ten and he’s made a ruddy good effort

First 9 rounds...... but 10th and 11th have been way better.

That was dreadful.

Joshua just isn’t very good. Good match making and cherrypicking the right opposition.
Stands no chance against Fury. Doubt he stands much chance against Wilder or Joyce either.

Joshua should retire, he's never getting near the top table again. His hand speed, combinations and even his power have all regressed.

Franklin, never seen him before, never want to again. Extremely limited fighter.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Joshua just isn’t very good. Good match making and cherrypicking the right opposition.
Stands no chance against Fury. Doubt he stands much chance against Wilder or Joyce either.

People willed him in to an all time great after the Wlad fight, sorry but Wlad must have been shot and he briefly knocked him into unconsciousness before he recovered.Never much cared for his ‘believing his own hype’ personality but you’ve got to feel sorry for someone who’s had his pants pulled down. The split decision against Usyk does indeed seem to be his highest achievement.

A Joyce matchup would be disastrous but all points will surely be heading that way as he represents the tier below world champion. But I think he will retire.

AJ seems to be hypercritical of himself and overthinking and hesitant and not particularly enjoying it inside the ring.   He had difficulty with Jermaine Franklin's movement and speed.  Whereas earlier in his career he was more natural and quicker and less gun shy.   Maybe he is in with a higher calibre of fighter nowadays or with fighters + trainers who have studied him and so are more prepared when meeting him in the ring.  He seems stiff and slow.  People like Fury have called him robotic and a body builder rather than a natural boxer at this level.

Oct 2013 to Dec 2019: 6 years:  24 fights: average of four fights a year.
Jan 2020 to Apr 2023: 3 years:  4 fights: average of one fight a year.

I haven't seen the fight but will try and watch it later (perhaps not actually reading some of the posts).

Did anyone expect anything different from Joshua? When was the last time he produced a performance? I find everything about AJ quite underwhelming these days tbh.....he doesn't even talk a particularly good fight.

So Hearn says Joshua would take the Fury fight if offered, but in Hearn’s opinion ‘not the right time’…
Yeah it’s gonna be Joshua vs Whyte 2…

It’s gonna be Whyte

I’m still reeling from the Wardley stoppage, absolutely sickening stoppage

Robbed us of an interesting fight that was just warming up, robbed Wardley of a good learning fight, robbed the American of showing off his defensive skills and the chance to take Wardley into the later rounds. The fight was still in the balance. Utterly sickening stoppage. I don’t get the you need to be throwing back bit. If they all miss you should be allowed to slip a thousand punches and tire your opponent

Yeah, that stoppage in the Wardley fight was classic hometown cooking, Herman. Howard Foster slipping seamlessly into the huge void left by Ian John-Lewis' demotion.

As for Joshua, well Franklin takes a good shot and did his best to make it a scrappy, stop-start fight, so while it'll be a disappointment to many that he didn't get the stoppage that alone isn't a disaster in itself. The bigger concern is that he looked pretty average technically again and seemed either unwilling / unable to stop Franklin's scrappy approach - or worse still, seemed as if he wanted to make it scrappy and safety-first himself at times.

I guess you could make the argument that it'll take two or three fights to properly gel with James, but Joshua only fights twice a year and his profile dictates that any fight he has will carry a fair amount of scrutiny, so he doesn't really have the luxury of time. I guess your take on that will dictate whether you give him and James some benefit of the doubt for how toothless he looked last night, or if you conclude that he's either on his way to being washed / has been found out and exposed for his limitations.

It looks almost certain it'll be Whyte II next, which is depressing news for me. I'd honestly much rather see Ruiz III ahead of that.

He's been gunshy since Ruiz1 hasn't he ???  Happened to Curry/Hamed/Camacho so he is in good company......

Personally I'd let him cash out against Fury (Chris is right that AJ's fans expect a certain level of opposition)...Not even sure he takes a worn out Whyte if he won't let his hands go..

Worse thing they could do is give him Joyce......Be a nightmare someone who can take a great shot and engage more than Franklin...

AJ just doesn't have it now but he has been an overachiever even in a cruddy era.......But why should he care life is all about timing.

Retire or cash out with Fury...

Every time Whyte gets mentioned a little piece of me dies. Too much to ask that he fights a “live” fighter eg Joyce. Who is older than him , and is very one-dimensional so you would have thought he would be a starter for a weathered ex-champ.
Let’s be honest, we’re past peak Fury too. I wouldn’t be surprised if,some years down the line, we get Fury/Joshua as a non-title bout. I always thought it would be a shut-out for Fury if they fought, however I suspect we will see in 2024 two slow clapped out men dragging it out over twelve, with a “pyrrhic” victory for greedy belly.
Such a shame but I really foresee both men tarnishing their legacies badly.
Retirement would give AJ some positive write-ups and sympathy, but as it’s all about the dough …he’s cooked.
Perhaps the most likely decent scrap is Joyce/Wilder. Yes I have mentioned Joyce a lot over the years but he’s really looking like our only decent hope.

If Joshua retires without fighting Fury and/or Wilder, he’ll end up even more ridiculed than he is now. He was obviously never the man at heavyweight, more so the lucky one to inherit the belts.
Losing to Fury probably earns him credit, maybe beating Wilder gives Joshua the best of your rest standing.

Jeff Navarro wrote:If Joshua retires without fighting Fury and/or Wilder, he’ll end up even more ridiculed than he is now. He was obviously never the man at heavyweight, more so the lucky one to inherit the belts.
Losing to Fury probably earns him credit, maybe beating Wilder gives Joshua the best of your rest standing.

Disagree......

No one blames AJ for Fury......Wilder had other plans and fighting Usyk looks like a brave move after the Fury v Usyk business..

He will always be a Brit hero and decent champ in a bad era.....Might even make a Top 25 Heavy depending on the wind.

Usyk was mandatory. Joshua had to fight him to keep the hopes alive for becoming undisputed.

Joshua is only slightly ridiculed now becase we Brits love to bash someone on the way down. the guy fought Usyk twice and 100 percent fought his heart out in the second one. Fury's retirement (his 5th or 6th) is coming as he doesn't really wanna fight anyone with a pulse and Wilder is just an awful champ that has a punch.

I don't really see the doom and gloom that everyone else did on Saturday, looks like Joshua was dropping back to the basics and seeing how he could do and for me he did it fine, didn't have him losing any rounds (lets be honest, Franklin had minimum success) and I think people just wanted him to fail.

Not 100 percent sure the desire is there to take it to the highest level again but can see him going out against Wilder and picking up the win then retiring.

But no, i won't be paying for Joshua/Whyte for the 3rd time or whatever it is, Again none of the fights have been competitive people just getting excited over a 10 second period that's it.

Having now watched the fight....AJ was really poor. He's just seems to have lost any spark he may have once had and shouldn't be in the conversation for titles on recent showings.

I really can't see where he turns next as he's going get humped by anyone half decent.