Moses Itauma was facing, on paper at least, the toughest challenge of his young career as he took on American Jermaine Franklin
Moses Itauma knocks down Jermaine Franklin
Moses Itauma destroyed Jermaine Franklin to send a warning to the heavyweight division.
Itauma, who has now stopped 12 of his 14 opponents as a professional, did what Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte failed to do and stopped Franklin who survived to the fifth round – further than Itauma had been before as a professional.
The 21-year-old Brit also dropped the American in the third session and said: “I’ve done something other British heavyweights who went on to do great things, didn’t do. I tried to knock him out in the first and second rounds but I thought, ‘maybe not today’ so I went back to basics, went to the body, and the knockout came.”
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Itauma had control from the first bell, patiently stalking Franklin around the ring. The young Brit landed a right to the body and followed up with a left upstairs. Itauma’s speed was causing Franklin problems as the home favourite rammed home his jab in round two. Another one-two brought a wild response from the American but he did check Itauma’s chin with a left hand.
Itauma continued to have success mixing his left hook to the body with the opposite shot to Franklin’s temple. The visitor was offering little in return was dropped with 20 seconds of the third round remaining from a right hook. Franklin saw out the remainder of the session but shipped a left hook at the start of the fourth.
Itauma appeared in no rush for a finish as he continued to beat Franklin to the punch but was at least taken into the fifth round for the first time in his career. But it was there the fight came to an abrupt end as Franklin was wobbled with a left uppercut and dumped face-first on the canvas with a right hand.
On the undercard, Willy Hutchinson’s eagerly-anticipated clash with Ezra Taylor failed to ignite, but the Scotsman did inflict a first defeat on the Nottingham man. All three judges gave the Scotsman the nod as he recorded his second victory since falling to defeat by Joshua Buatsi at Wembley two years ago.
Nathan Heaney brought the noise to the arena but fell flat in the ring as he was outpointed by Gerome Warburton. Stoke’s Heaney was backed by his travelling army but struggled to get to grips with the tricky Welshman as he slipped to his second defeat in his last five fights. Heaney later confirmed he will fight just once more before hanging up his gloves.
Brad Pauls pulled off a stunning upset, stopping the unbeaten Shakiel Thompson in the ninth round. Pauls had fought just once since suffering a defeat at the hands of world title challenger Denzel Bentley two years ago. And he was behind on the cards against Thompson before dropping his rival with a right hand. Thompson rose to beat the count but was down again shortly afterwards.
