Jermaine Franklin outworks Rydell Booker in entertaining scuffle.

In an entertaining heavyweight co-feature, undefeated Jermaine Franklin 18-0 (13 KOs) faced former Number 1 ranked US Amateur standout, Rydell Booker 25-2 (12 Ko’s) over 10 on the Shields v Hammer card in Atlantic City.. The 25 year old Franklin started aggressively, taking the action to the 38 year old Booker, but found the overweight veteran surprisingly crafty, especially with the counter left hook.. Booker, deceptively agile made the enthusiastic Franklin look foolish with subtle counters.. The anxious youngsters inexperience began to show, as he began to load up on everything he launched at the wily Booker, expending unnecessary energy, largely missing with wide swings.. By the half way mark, it appeared as if Franklin May be heading towards a valuable yet painful lesson, as he twice spat the mouthpiece in order to catch precious time to organise himself.. By round 7 Booker himself was starting to feel the pace, reduced to an almost stationary target for the now more calculated Franklin... The younger man now managing to sustain a steady work rate, was for the first time dictating the fight, with Booker offering the occasional reminder for Franklin to stay switched on.. Both men enjoyed sporadic success throughout the highly entertaining fight, which saw Jermaine emerge a unanimous victor with scores of 99-91 and 98-91 twice..

In the grand scheme of things, the win is a decent result for Franklin, overcoming some crisis moments to turn the fight around against an accomplished fighter.. Booker looked surprisingly fresh considering the back story.. In 2004 Booker was 23-0 going into a heavyweight eliminator with the then still dangerous James Toney, dropping a 12 round decision.. Shortly after his solitary defeat, Booker was sentenced to between 12 and 30 years in jail for drugs offences.. After serving over a decade in prison, Rydell returned to the ring after a 14 year layoff in 2018, scoring 3 comeback wins prior to tonight’s nationally televised opportunity.. Booker, despite the loss looked remarkable with all things considered.. Franklin is an explosive fighter who in time could have a bright future with some fine tuning..

Following the fight, Jermaine acknowledged his faults throughout the bout, self criticising his inability to create space and tendency to be over anxious.. “I need to learn to be more patient because I had him hurt several times, and got over anxious, throwing my whole game plan out of the window.. I’ll fix my mistakes and come back bigger and better next time.. “

A disappointed Booker was a little hard on himself.
“I felt he out-hustled me, but it was a lot closer than how the judges scored it... He was missing me a lot more than it looked, I slipped a lot of shots and hit him clean... I knew he would bring the pressure, but he needs a lot of work. He stays too centered with his head. He’s alright. What he has on his side is youth. I’d rate my performance about a seven... I had a training camp injury I was dealing with. I’m going to stay active and come back stronger than ever.”