Anthony Joshua vs Jermaine Franklin

Former unified heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua fights at The O2 in London for the first time since 2016 as he begins life under new trainer Derrick James.

On Saturday night, he returns to the scene of his first world title win over Charles Martin to face another American contender in Jermaine Franklin. 

29-year-old Franklin, who pushed Dillian Whyte all the way before losing by majority decision in a close points loss in November 2022, looks likely to be a tricky opponent for Joshua who is looking to restart his career after two defeats by Oleksandr Usyk.

This will be Joshua's first bout without at least one world title on the line in almost seven years.

Groves, Taylor and Morris provided their predictions for the fight as part of the oddschecker Betting Show, brought to you by oddschecker in association with DAZN Bet.

 

George Groves - former super-middleweight world champion

Unless Joshua wants to make a statement, start really quick and catch him early, or even makes a mistake and gets caught early which I don't think will be the case, I think he'll be a bit cautious and bank a few rounds. 

But I think he will stop Franklin by landing something big on him. Looking at the round betting I'd go 7-9. If it goes past that then it might go the distance but I think AJ has found his measure by then.

Declan Taylor - GG Boxing Club podcast host

I'm similar in I see a stoppage for Joshua but there's a couple of intangibles. Firstly, Joshua might want to go out and just blast him out which is not out the question but he's not really been that early KO guy. I was looking into it, this is his 15th 12-round fight and only three of those have ended in the first half - Gary Cornish, Charles Martin and Eric Molina. 

So, he's never put the top guys away early. The last one was seven years ago and Alexander Povetkin is the only one to have gone before nine since then (September 2018) so all the signs point towards Joshua taking a few rounds to get started.

His opponents always think 'this guy blows down the stretch so I'm going to keep it tight'. I'm sure Franklin - not a big concussive puncher - is thinking about being cute, stealing his way through the first few rounds and maybe land something later.

So I think it'll be cagey ish start, you have to remember Joshua's career is on the line so he doesn't want to go in there with his chin in the air. He won't take too many chances so the bet for me is rounds 9-12 or 10-12 - that's the one that's winking at me.

However, Franklin will see it as a feather in the cap not to get stopped. He'll turn up thinking he can win but if he gives a good account of himself he probably gets another go. So, Joshua on points is a sneaky one with good value.

Peter Morris – oddschecker boxing tipster

I quite like the points bet too. Going back to the new trainer, I think it might take a bit of time to bed in. Franklin won't want to get blasted out, he'll want to take it down the stretch and hope AJ will tire so you can see him keeping it tight and AJ not being at his best early on. 

The points bet at 9/2 is a decent bet (best price 5/1) - it's an implied probability of 18%. The only other one I've got, which isn't an exciting one is no knock downs at 4/1 on DAZN Bet - you can see Franklin being stopped but staying on his feet. The last thing he wants to do is get blasted out and he's not going to take a knee if he doesn't have to.