Whyte edges Franklin with majority decision

Heavyweight Jermaine Franklin (21-1, 14 KOs) went into the lion’s den and almost defeated former world title challenger Dillian Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs), losing by twelve round majority decision on Saturday night at Wembley Arena in London. Neither fighter was really ever in control. Scores were 115-115, 116-112, 116-112 for the local fighter.

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Photo: Matthew Pover / Matchroom

After the bout, Whyte stated that he could have been a bit more active and thrown more big shots, but coming off a loss and with a new coach in Buddy McGirt, he said he was just listening to his coach. Franklin stated that he felt he was robbed in the fight.

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Unbeaten heavyweight Fabio Wardley (15-0, 14 KOs) scored a third round TKO over Nathan Gorman (19-2, 13 KOs) in a bout for the vacant British title. Wardley dropped Gorman twice in round two, but Gorman survived the round. Wardley dropped Gorman again in round three and Gorman’s corner threw in the towel moments later. Time was 2:33.

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Photo: Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing

2020 Olympic silver medalist Pat McCormack (3-0, 2 KOs) shut out Christian Nicolas Andino (16-6-2, 2 KOs) over six rounds in a welterweight bout. Score was 60-54.

Other Results:
Sandy Ryan W10 Anahi Sanchez (female super lightweight)
Cheavon Clarke TKO2 Jose Gregorio Ulrich (cruiserweight)
Mark Dickinson W6 Gideon Onyenani (middleweight)
George Liddard TKO2 Nikola Matic (middleweight)
Thomas Carty TKO5 Pavlo Krolenko (heavyweight)

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    • now Franklin will qualify for a Chisora fight. or to have a chance to be clobbered by a top prospect.

  • Son of a gun. It was a pretty good scrap. I think 116-112 would be 7-4 with 1 even. Possibly a tad too generous to Whyte. But I have no big issue with the decision.

  • Surprisingly … unexpected…Excellent fight.Excellent action..both showed skill particularly with the body shots..right to the body after quick combos by Franklin …a thing of beauty.. Congrats to both fighters..fight was a draw..could have gone either way…by a point…scorecards ridiculous….Franklin in maximum shape and condition wins this fight with those quick hands…Franklin gets more disciplined is a champion..showed excellent technique… Congrats Whyte would love to see a rematch…

  • I cannot believe anyone trains with Buddy McGirt. He is a career killer…. Whyte needs to go with someone else.

      • He helped make Gatti a lot of money. His career would have ended a lot earlier than it did had he not linked with Buddy.

    • Also Questioning corner instructions urgency not the instructions….agree everything off the jab for Whyte…Whyte needed distance..keeping Franklin at the end of the jab…Franklin was catching Whyte between punches and with right hands to the body…expected corner to inform Whyte that fight was close…pick up the Pace….keep good distance….agreed with technical instructions…just no sense of urgency…

    • Whyte is ON the Back 9.

      RWB, the grammar is atrocious, but your thoughts are right on the money. Great job, RWB.

  • My money was in Franklin, but Whyte suprised me that he had actually good fight for a long time and he had to , because Franklin was in fire..
    Maybe Franklin should have been more patience with his power punches in the earlier rounds and try to pace himself better but it was good entertaining heavy weight boxing bout no matter the 2 judges bs score cards.

      • Finland is my nro 1 language Chris the natural and i havent study English at all. Learned by “accident” thru the TV etc over the years

        • Great answer fella, there are so many peeps on here who ‘s seem to mix boxing comment with insult or profanity . It’s why many of the long time boxing folks don’t comment anymore .

  • Entertaining fight. Could have gone either way. Would definitely like to see a rematch.

  • It felt that Franklin needed to turn his firepower up couple of notches to make Whyte feel concerned.

  • Franklin needs to get into shape—Has talent but shame on him for showing up flabby to a potentially life changing fight

    • 90 percent of current heavyweights are in poor shape. It is like being a fat heavyweight is the new cool thing.

    • It’s his bad and entitled attitude that causes that, and that will never change. Therefore, tonight was the
      best of Franklin’s underachieving career, and he still lost. LoL

  • Are these judges from Mariposa County, AZ? What horrible judges. Someone needs to call the police because Franklin was robbed.

  • Getting a decision in a close bout in the UK is behind reach time and again-something needs to be done

  • this was a positive surprise to see Franklin at his best. I have never seen him fight this well. I expected the close decision to go Whyte’s way, but Franklin did his thing. He should take this experience as fuel to go out and win some other big fights. He can make the top 10 heavy’s if he continues this level of output and now the HW climate is much better than it used to be in terms of the top 10-15.

  • ibo…??? CROCKET N BOWE..THE HOUSE REP DAVE..LAST ONE..MEXICANS DO HONOR HIM ..

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