Whyte Beats Franklin On Points

Whyte Beats Franklin On Points

There are many things wrong in boxing, how the judges score fights is perhaps the biggest issue of many.

Dillian Whyte got the benefit of the doubt, and there was plenty of it, and Jermaine Franklin got no reward for what he served up in London.

One judge scored it 115-115, two more, inexplicably scored it 116-112 for the perennial British heavyweight contender. How they reached that verdict is anyone’s guess. Reality, it most certainly wasn’t.

I had the American up 7-5 in rounds, but I had little confidence he would get the reward his efforts deserved. In boxing, we seem to expect and accept cards like this far too easily. Giving Franklin only four rounds is bordering on the criminal.

Whyte looked awful, lethargic and terribly one-paced. In truth, he looked like a fighter ready to be taken. If was in against a fighter with a little more potency in his fists, Whyte would likely have not heard the final bell. The undeserved victory will now take him to a fight he has little chance of winning. On the evidence of Saturday night at the Wembley Arena, he is a fighter very much in the decline.

Franklin, despite his unbeaten record, came in with little expectation, and while he hardly blew anybody away with his skills, at least for this observer, he did more than enough to have his hand raised. But to the surprise of nobody, the judges saw it differently. There were times when I was watching rounds Franklin was clearly winning, but yet still thinking, he needs to do a little more to remove any excuse to give the rounds the other way. Has boxing really come to this?

It wasn’t the greatest heavyweight fight by any stretch of the imagination, it wasn’t even the best heavyweight fight of the evening, Fabio Wardley and Nathan Gorman took those honours, but it still held attention as the smell of the upset was very much in the air. Absorbing, even if it was on the pedestrian side.

Franklin will be back, he more than deserves another day in the sun. Whyte will get what will probably be his last big night. Every single heavyweight contender will now see Whyte as a fast-track route to a shot at the heavyweight championship of the world. Whyte can consider himself to be a very fortunate winner against Franklin, next time out, he is likely to find his luck runs out.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing