Franklin down, Joshua class out Tyson Fury

Anthony Joshua (left) defeated Jermaine Franklin, on Saturday, in his comeback fight since his back-to-back defeats by Oleksandr Usyk.

Don’t go near Wilder, Gypsy King, Froch warns AJ

Anthony Joshua knows a Battle of Britain with Tyson Fury is the fight “the boxing world needs” to see after he survived his ‘do-or-die’ clash with Jermaine Franklin, writes thenational.scot.

Joshua laboured to his first victory since 2020 with a unanimous points decision success over the American heavyweight at the O2 Arena.

After back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, the former Olympic champion could not afford another loss on his CV, with retirement talk the elephant in the room since Usyk won his world titles in Tottenham two years ago.

While it was far from vintage Joshua at his old stomping ground, the judges scored 118-111, 117-111 and 117-111 in favour of the home boxer, who regularly landed his left jab and connected with several thunderous right punches without pushing Franklin to the point of no return.

It means the two-time world heavyweight champion lives to fight another day and he knows all roads lead back to rival, Fury.

“Dillian Whyte or Tyson Fury? Well, 100 per cent Tyson Fury,” said Joshua, who took his record to 25-3, with 22 knockouts.

“That is the pot of gold. That is the WBC heavyweight champion of the world. That’s what it is all about, so definitely Tyson Fury.

“Yeah (another warm-up fight) would be ideal, after that long lay-off, to get active. But sometimes an opportunity presents itself and you have to grab it with both hands.

“In that sense, if the opportunity presented itself and coach and team agreed it is a good opportunity, I would take it and grab it with both hands, 100 per cent. The boxing world needs it,” he