THERE was chaos in the ring at the end of Anthony Joshua’s homecoming victory against Jermaine Franklin.
Despite the bell sounding, both men refused to let go of each other before both corners ran in and got involved.
AJ almost appeared as though he was heading into a rugby scrum, shouldering into his American opponent.
Franklin tumbled back towards his corner, who then decided to get involved.
One of his team appeared to lunge towards Joshua, before security and the referee finally got a handle on things.
The fight had threatened to spill over at time, with both fighters having words with each other at the end of rounds.
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AJ was certainly pumped up for it as things threatened to boil over after the opening round.
His American rival was spotted sticking his tongue out at Joshua during the early stages of the bout.
Then once the bell had gone AJ initially refused to sit in his corner as he stood eyeballing his opponent.
Then, still looking fuming, he stood eyeballing before he shouted: “F*** off.”
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The former two-time unified heavyweight champion returned to action at London’s O2 on Saturday night for a make-or-break fight for his glittering career.
And he secured a wide-margin points win against ex-roofer Franklin.
The judges at the O2 Arena gave it to the Watford brawler unanimously 118-111 and 117-111 twice.
AJ’s hopes of forging a path back to world title contention hinged on making a definitive statement against the American, his first opponent since back-to-back defeats to pound-for-pound king Oleksandr Usyk.
But the burly Brit failed to prove he’s still a major force to be reckoned with by going the distance with American gunslinger Franklin.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
