Whyte outpoints Franklin in disputed majority decision.

Dillian Whyte returned to the ring tonight with a highly disputed majority points victory over tough unheralded and unbeaten Jermaine Franklin at Wembley Arena. Franklin got off to a spirited start with well selected sharp combinations, stamping his authority on the fight. Whyte found his range in the middle rounds but appeared to try too hard to land single shots. As Whyte raised his tempo, Franklin matched him for spirit and guts. The bout appeared in the balance as Franklin appeared to slow, offering Whyte opportunities to break through. At the end of the ninth Whyte walked onto a short hook which seemed to stun him, as he reeled towards the corner the Michigan fighter moved in with a series of shots only to be cut short by the bell that possibly saved Whyte from a compromising spot. Whyte himself seemed to fade towards the closing rounds as Franklin seemed to spring to life with explosive bursts of intermittent punches. Whyte was told to forget about knockouts by James McGirt in the corner between rounds and to stay in his shell. The final round again was a close affair with Franklin acting defiantly, Whyte did rally towards the end of the session and managed to stun Franklin with a highly entertaining bout coming to its conclusion. Many at ringside felt the fight could have gone either way but all appeared to agree that it was extremely close. Unfortunately despite one judge scoring accurately with a 115-115 draw, both of the other officials at ringside saw it necessary to score the bout a one sided 116-112. I scored the bout with one round in favour of the American but it remains that Whyte moves on to a potential meeting with Anthony Joshua in the summer. Jermaine Franklin a gracious loser voiced his opinions on the scores but made it very clear that very few people have the heart to get into the ring with him, his stock does rise significantly.