Nigerian British Boxer, Anthony Olaseni Joshua age 32 (OBE) late Saturday night at the famous 02 Arena in London defeated his challenger, America’s Jamaine Franklin aged 29 by unanimous decision 118-111; 117-111 and 117-111 in an encounter that went to the wire.
Franklin the ‘989 Assassin’ was a hard nut to crack for AJ who got a bloody nose from round two courtesy of the traditional quick jabs of Franklin, and was amazed at the resilience of Franklin to absorb his brutal uppercuts that dazzled the anxious fans who were expecting AJ 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..
Franklin had a controversial loss to Dillian Whyte via majority decision last Franklin arrived the venue at about 7 pm GMT while AJ came in 30 minutes later showing no mood at all rather pensive even while the bout was on concentrating his look on his opponent’s face.
AJ The former three times World Heavyweight Champion had hinted at 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. Anthony Joshua’s actual biological home is in Shagamu, Remo Local Government of Ogun State.
Galal Yafai in one of the underscore cards earned a round 4 knockout on Moises Callleros in the Flyweight bout after he was pummeled mercilessly by Yafai.
Ref had to stop the bout because he was not satisfied with Calleros come back on his feet after a series of being pummeled by Yafai.
30-year-old Yafai is ranked in all the available Boxing Association rankings while 33-year-old Calleros is not ranked with any Boxing body.
In an earlier undercard 10-round Super Middleweight bout, Ref Howard had stopped the bout between Southpaw Austin William (Southpaw means left-handed) and River Wilson-Bent after Bent received a barrage of body shots in round 8 when Bent fell on the ropes and his corner threw in the towel.
Bent had a knockdown in 1 minute 20 seconds of round one; getting another knockdown from a powerful left hook that made his mouth guard fly off with what appeared a wrestling encounter which made the two pugilists hit the canvas in the same round 7.
Ref Kieran McCam halted the Welterweight bout between Campbell Hatton and Louis Fielding in 1 minute 29 seconds of the 8th round. Fielding’s guard was weakened and Hatton caught him in the rib after a minute of round one.
The most controversial but of the night was Ref Howard Foster stopping Fabio Wardley versus Michael Polite Coffie’s encounter in round 4 after a series of body punches on Coffie, a Southpaw fighter in a 10-round Heavyweight bout.
Coffie shoved the Ref who stood in between them off indicating he was ready to continue with the fight but the Ref stood his ground stopping the fight. Top boxers at the venue criticized Ref Foster for a hasty decision insisting Coffie would have concluded the bout and anything could have happened.
