Two-time former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua is ready for a return to the ring for the primary time since shedding back-to-back fights to Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua will face Jermaine Franklin in an April 1 showdown in London.
After beginning his profession 22-0 and unifying three of boxing’s 4 acknowledged world championships, Joshua has had a tough run since 2019. First, he misplaced his titles in June 2019 when he was knocked out by Andy Ruiz Jr. in one of many largest upsets within the historical past of heavyweight championship boxing. After profitable the belts again within the rematch with Ruiz, Joshua picked up a win over Kubrat Pulev earlier than his first conflict with Usyk.
In their September 2021 assembly, Joshua was totally outboxed by Usyk, leading to a unanimous resolution win for Usyk and costing Joshua his belts as soon as once more. They rematched the next August, with Joshua combating a greater combat however in the end dropping a cut up resolution.
In late 2022, Tyson Fury publicly pushed for a combat with Joshua in what would have been an enormous combat in England. Negotiations fell aside virtually as quickly as they started and Fury as a substitute fought Derek Chisora and now Joshua strikes on to Franklin.
Franklin (21-1, 14 KO) is coming off his first profession defeat, a November majority resolution loss to Dillian Whyte.
Whyte has been publicly vital of the thought of Joshua combating Franklin, suggesting he was below the impression that his combat with Franklin got here with stakes through which the winner would face Joshua. A showdown between Whyte and Joshua would do large enterprise within the U.Ok.
“Everyone was instructed, all of the boxing followers, the winner of me and Franklin fights AJ, so it is a f—ed up factor,” Whyte instructed SunSport. “I’d have been higher off shedding the Franklin combat and getting the AJ combat. I do know DAZN want content material for his or her subscribers however why select to combat a low-profile American coming off a loss as a substitute of getting an enormous British tear-up? It’s no shock to me that they’ve chosen April 1 for this battle of the fools.”
Joshua promoter and chairman of Matchroom Boxing Eddie Hearn responded to Whyte’s criticism by suggesting that Franklin was all the time going to get the Joshua combat and {that a} conflict between Joshua and Whyte made extra sense in the summertime window.
“Let’s see how Anthony Joshua does towards Jermaine Franklin, versus how Dillian Whyte did towards Jermaine Franklin,” Hearn instructed iD Boxing. “We’ve all the time deliberate for that combat for the summer season. Dillian Whyte was coming off a defeat, he boxed Jermaine Franklin. AJ’s coming off two defeats, he is boxing Jermaine Franklin. It was an excellent combat between Dillian Whyte and Jermain Franklin and we’ll see how AJ compares.”
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Matchroom not too long ago confirmed three different world title fights on their upcoming schedule. That features a highly-anticipated rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in May, as introduced following Serrano’s win over Erika Cruz on Saturday. In addition, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Cristian Gonzalez is ready for the vacant WBO flyweight title on April 8, with Rodriguez seeking to construct on his spectacular 2022. Also, Shavkat Rakhimov defends his IBF tremendous featherweight title towards Joe Cordina on April 22.UFC star Jorge Masvidal has lined up his subsequent Gamebred Boxing card and it’s crammed with fascinating, and barely confounding bouts. In the principle occasion, former UFC light-weight champion Anthony Pettis will combat 54-year-old Roy Jones Jr., who was arguably boxing’s greatest fighter within the Nineteen Nineties and gained world titles all over the place from middleweight to heavyweight. Somehow, regardless of this being Pettis’ professional boxing debut and Jones being properly into his 50s, Masvidal acknowledged on “The MMA Hour” that the combat was to be an eight-round skilled bout. Also on the boxing card, MMA nice Jose Aldo will face former foe Jeremy Stephens, one other rematch of former MMA foes with Vitor Belfort taking over Jacare Souza, and boxing and MMA veteran Anthony Taylor will battle Paul Daley, who retired from MMA competitors final 12 months. Aside from eight rounds for the principle occasion, all fights are scheduled to be six-round skilled bouts.
