Anthony Joshua gave a sense of the pressure he was fighting under when defeating Jermaine Franklin via a unanimous decision.
The 33-year-old, fighting for the first time since his successive defeats by Oleksandr Usyk and for the first time since recruiting his new trainer Derrick James, laboured to scores of 118-111, 117-111 and 117-111 at London’s O2 Arena, and consistently struggled to impress.
For all of his advantages in height, reach and experience, they fought at a range that largely suited Franklin and on an evening when Joshua repeatedly appeared stiff and tense.
Franklin had been selected as his opponent with the intention of Joshua recording the convincing nature of victory that would have enhanced his reputation and fragile confidence, but even after the deserved scores were announced it seemed likelier that both had been harmed.
“You guys and outside pressures put so much pressure on this thing of winning,” said Joshua, also wary of the need to deliver for DAZN after his unexpected departure from his long-term broadcaster Sky Sports. “I’m going to stop putting that amount of pressure on myself and work hard and do my best.
“The game brings enough pressure. Through experience I’ve learned coping mechanisms, because the pressure can definitely have an effect on someone. A lot of people don’t see what fighters go through when they’re alone after a fight they’ve lost, in their own head – even after a fight that they’ve won.
“In the fight you’re downloading information at all times.
“When you say, ‘The old AJ’, we can look back at times, with Klitschko – we went in for the kill, round five, and the only reason he managed to survive until the 11th is because I gassed. I blew a gasket in the ring. Then we fast forward to, for example, the [Kubrat] Pulev fight, where I thought I was so close to taking him out, I probably threw about 200 punches, trying to take this guy out, and he survived – he’s a tough guy. So then I realised, ‘I’ve got to get back to my boxing – be clever’.
The frustrated Joshua exchanged words with Franklin at the conclusion of the first round and during the middle rounds, and after the final bell squared up to him until they were separated.
He regardless insisted that his opponent, 29, hadn’t got under his skin during the process of him trash talking and sticking his tongue out, and recognised also that he had underperformed.
“I matched that energy,” he said. “So no, he didn’t get under my skin, I just raised my game. You wanna trash talk? I’ll trash talk as well.
“I can’t blame Franklin for anything that goes on in that ring because it’s all about me. Anything that happens in life is not to blame others. I gotta take accountability. If I didn’t want Franklin to hold me I had to move my feet and create space. That’s just down to me. If I would have created space I would have been able to get that knockout. It’s not him. It’s all me.
“Deep down, I’m not happy, because the ultimate goal is a knockout. Anything short of that isn’t what I’m happy with. But it is what it is. I can’t look back on it – what’s done is done and I can only build on that. That’s the mindset.
