27-year-old former WBA super flyweight champion Joshua Franco has announced on social media that he is retiring from boxing. Franco (18-2-3, 8 KOs) lost his world title on the scale on Friday, then was defeated on Saturday by Kazuto Ioka.
Joshua Franco: I wanted to start off by saying thank you to everyone that has supported me in my career. I appreciate everyone for their continued support. I was able to live my childhood dream of becoming a world champion. I defended my title multiple times all over the world and always tried my best to represent San Antonio, TX proudly.
For the majority of my career, I have been going through a lot of mental problems that I was doing my best to control. I never talked about it publicly because I didn’t want anyone to think I ever made an excuse for anything or for anyone to look at me different. I battled through it as much as I could to still perform and give you guys some great fights. For anyone that battles through any type of mental health issues please know you are not alone. And you can’t let anything stop you from achieving your dreams
I want to say thank you to my team. My mom, dad and brothers for all their help and support throughout my whole career. Everyone at RGBA for believing in me [and] helping me achieve my dreams. You guys always believed in me and I will forever be grateful.
Last night in Tokyo, Japan was officially my last fight. It was a tough week for me and I didn’t get the result I wanted but I leave this sport knowing I gave it everything I had
Again thank you to everyone for all their support and I’ll see you guys around.
Probably not the best idea to make a decision like this so soon after a fight but if it is his last one definitely wish Franco all the best going forward.
He probably recognized during training for this fight that he should retire because of his struggles with his mental health issues. It interfered with his prep and motivation, which is why he couldn’t make weight. Seems like a decent young man. I hope he can overcome his demons, get the help he needs, and regain control of his life.
I wish him the best. If there are mental health issues effecting his life , him not getting biffed in the head for a living is a move in the right direction
I wish him nothing, but the best and a speedy treatment & recovery
I have no respect for a fighter who can’t make weight. Back in the day there wasn’t all this weight cutting. Between fights Marvin Hagler walked around at 163; he wasn’t a light heavyweight trying to slip down to middleweight to get an advantage over smaller guys. The wrestlers are the ones who started all this weight cutting madness, then the wrestlers went into MMA & it spread there & into boxing. Boxing should go back to weigh-ins the morning of the fight.
I’ve heard that said before Nordic but not only do I think that it wouldn’t fix the problem, I think it would make an even larger one. I think you’d still have guys attempting ridiculous weight cuts and instead of weighing in the morning of the day before the fight and then having basically a day and half to recover and rehydrate, they’d then just have a half a day or so to accomplish the same thing because they’d still try to do it! I think that’s dangerous and I think we’d potentially have a lot of people getting seriously injured or worse because of it.
If you fully want to get rid of the problem of fighters missing weight, then what you do is to tell them that this is the contracted weight; if you are unable to make this weight at the weigh in the morning of the day before the fight and your opponent still wishes to fight you, the fight will go on. HOWEVER, 100% of your money will go to your opponent. All of it! I think if you do that, then have someone in the middle of their camp and the weight isn’t coming off, for all of the people it potentially effects, trainers, managers, families etc. that fighter does not make it to weigh in. They probably don’t even sign the contract in the first place if it’s going to be a problem.
Might as well cancel the fight. No one is going got fight for zero dollars. He’s losing money and also screws over his corner men.
My beef is the fighter knows for “x” reason he/she wont make weight, then why wait until the last minute? This to me seems a bit deceiving in the sense, oh well, we are a day prior to fight night, now I cannot be replaced with another fighter…
is should “if”
Most likely he knew he was struggling with the weight but instead of saying anything earlier which wouldn’t result in anything more than what transpired. The fight must go on. He tried to deal with the weight up to the weight in as any fighter would or would be told to do. The man has been struggling with mental illness which could have lead to him not reaching his goals. It’s easy to sit back on your protected couch and judge without knowing what the man has been or is going through mentally. It shows how terrible of a human being you are for disrespecting him because of his miss weight over his health struggles which ultimately lead to his early retirement. It’s downright shameful. How would you feel if it were you going through something like that and someone dismisses the real underlying issue and judges you based off your miss weight?
Unless it was for medical reasons or a loss in your family..
He will return, but in the meantime all the best on his endeavor to regain his health and my respects for his sincerity. See you on 2025 Franco
VERY smart move. Only go as far as your abilities will allow in this sport. Joshua, you did an A+ job. You should be commended.
Mental illness will/does take its toll on people ad i hope nothing but the best out come for Franco.
I didn’t know he was experiencing mental health challenges and hope he gets the needed support to manage them effectively. Best of luck, champ.
he will come back soon, always take important decisions in life with a cool head..
He is young, he can get help and recover from his mental issues. And then make a comeback at another weight class..