Jermaine Franklin has claimed that Dillian Whyte’s majority decision win against him in London was a robbery.
The previously undefeated American heavyweight came out second best in an extremely close contest in what was regarded beforehand by many as a routine comeback fight for Whyte.
Franklin’s fast hands and good countering was evident throughout the fight, but perhaps the bigger shots came from the home fighter. Many fans called it a draw and said that they would be happy for it to have gone either way by a round or two, but Franklin doesn’t agree.
In his post fight press conference, he said he felt he won by two rounds.
“I feel like I honestly won the fight, 7 – 5. I felt like I was holding him off, doing good with the jab, making him miss a lot. To hear the decision is kind of crazy to me. But I’m open for a rematch if he’ll give it to me. I’m down to go to war with anybody. I’m not ducking no smoke, not ducking no opponents. I’m gonna go back to the lab, come back better than ever … but I really want this rematch.”
As for his performance, he said that it wasn’t something he could be proud of, despite putting up a better effort than many thought he could.
“No I’m not proud I got a loss. I’m a competitor at heart. I live, breathe and die this s**t so any loss, any blemish is a huge thing to me.”
Finally, in response to Whyte’s power, the ‘989 Assassin’ says it’s nothing special, despite being wobbled in the final seconds.
“I don’t respect s**t. You gotta hurt me for real. If you hurt me then I’ll respect it, but I didn’t feel like he hurt me good enough for me to respect any power. I mean he can hit, I’m not saying he’s weak or anything, but I wasn’t hurt, I wasn’t fazed by anything.”
His calls for the rematch may well go unanswered, as Whyte will likely now move forward to a rematch with old foe, Anthony Joshua.