Jermaine Franklin claimed he was “robbed” after being on the wrong end of a majority decision result against Dillian Whyte on Sunday morning.
In what was a tough 12-round fight, Whyte moved to set the tone early but Franklin was with him every step of the fight, setting up what appeared to be a close call for the judges.
But instead it was Whyte who was ruled to be the clear winner, something which Franklin took immediate exception to — and he was not alone in feeling aggrieved.
“I felt like I got robbed, I felt like I did enough to get the decision,” he said after the fight.
“I felt like I won the earlier rounds. I just felt like I got robbed on the decision.”
Several prominent boxing journalists, including Dan Rafael, argued that while the fight could have gone either way the scorecards should have been far closer.
American promoter Lou DiBella, meanwhile, wrote on Twitter that he was not surprised at the result, calling it the “reality of boxing politics”.
Franklin said he was “down for a rematch” with Whyte, should it be offered.
“I proved a lot of people wrong, I prove people wrong every day, that’s what we do,” he said.
Whyte though has his eyes on a rematch with Anthony Joshua, who was in attendance ringside for Sunday’s fight.
“I’ll fight Joshua tomorrow. I’ll fight him for less money,” Whyte told DAZN in the lead-up to the Franklin fight.
“Whenever me and him fight, sparks fly. We just want to beat each other up. I’ll fight Joshua even when I’m 60. It’s a fight that will make you me faster, diet better, and make me go to bed at 7 o’clock every day.
“My record showed that I fought one dangerous guy are another. I fought guys that no one else wanted to fight.”
