Punch stats from the Dillian Whyte and Jermaine Franklin fight paint a picture of a laboured heavyweight clash with not much in it.
The numbers, as per CompuBox, show that Franklin outworked Whyte to the body, landing 23 more than his British opponent.
As for the basics, The American found a home for 60 jabs to Whyte’s 33 – a gap of 27 between the two heavyweights. He certainly was the busier of the two throughout, whereas Whyte focused more on planting his feet and getting off power punches.
That is a department in which he beat Franklin. The Brixton man landed 111 of his big shots, which was 40% of the amount he attempted. The American connected with slightly less and had a lower success ratio – 105 and 36%, respectively.
These power punches – if you’re trying to justify Whyte’s majority decision – point to the idea that the judges at ringside were impressed by the more eye-catching, heavy handed work.
The American landed more punches than the Brit in 8 of the twelve rounds, however this includes the twelfth in which Whyte had his man wobbled in the dying seconds, a round he has a very good case to claim.
All in all, there was just 21 punches between them – Franklin 165, Whyte, 144 – and it’s important to remember that the numbers, whilst important, never tell the whole story.
The judges scored it 115-115, 116-112 and 116-112 – with the two matching cards being particularly controversial.
Many fans are calling it the wrong decision, whilst others say Whyte did enough to win in a performance to forget. As for the fighters, they understandably have polar opposite views.
Franklin told the post-fight press conference that it was a robbery.
“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.”
Whyte, on the other hand, shot down the idea of running it back to one reporter in particular.
“Why do you keep going on about this rematch, are you part of Jermaine Franklin’s team? Stop talking s**t about rematch man, relax man. How [many] close fights have been in boxing? … It was a close fight, I won clearly, so why would I consider a rematch?”
He moves on to a potential second fight with Anthony Joshua, whilst Franklin will be looking for another opportunity to showcase what he can do after proving many doubters wrong – regardless of the official result.