Their first assembly, in July of 1977, was an exciting conflict, known as some of the sensational fights within the historical past of the Philadelphia Spectrum. As any educated boxing fan is aware of, there isn’t any larger reward than that. After eleven rounds of livid motion, an exhausted Marvin Johnson collapsed following a protracted battering in spherical twelve and Matthew Franklin was the brand new proprietor of the North American Boxing Federation gentle heavyweight championship.
Johnson wasted no time returning to the ring, going 6-1 and scoring main victories over Eddie Davis and Jerry Celestine earlier than buying a brand new title belt, this time of the world championship selection, from Mate Parlov in December of 1978. Over the identical stretch Franklin had scored large wins over Richie Kates and Yaqui Lopez. And so the stage was set: a Johnson vs Franklin rematch, this time for a world championship, the conflict held in Johnson’s house metropolis of Indianapolis and broadcast on reside nationwide tv. However might the second assembly reside as much as the superb motion of the primary?
In brief, sure, it might. And it did. In reality, one suspects Marvin Johnson and Matthew Franklin (who would later change his title to Matthew Saad Muhammad) might have been matched up any variety of instances and the end result would have been the identical: a grueling, crowd-pleasing, continuous slugfest, each warriors more than pleased to commerce large photographs at shut quarters.
On the opening bell, the southpaw champion chased after Franklin, seeking to impose his will and put the challenger on the defensive as he unloaded large left fingers and uppercuts on the within. For his half, Franklin, recognized for being a gradual starter, took his time and waited for openings to throw his highly effective proper. In spherical two Johnson shook Franklin with a giant left cross and the hometown crowd roared, however a minute later a strong uppercut buckled the champion’s legs, earlier than Johnson landed a sequence of heavy lefts. And so it went: toe-to-toe slugging between two sport and highly effective warriors.
The motion solely intensified in spherical three, neither man keen to again down, each completely happy to carry their floor and commerce and see who might face up to the higher punishment. Johnson labored to search out the correct distance for his harmful left uppercut and mid-way by means of the spherical he hit pay grime, gorgeous Franklin with one of the best punch of the match to date. Extra uppercuts and massive left fingers adopted and regardless of a final second rally from the Franklin, spherical three clearly belonged to the champion.
The irrepressible Johnson received his proper hook going to each physique and head within the fourth, and whereas there was nonetheless an extended strategy to go on this fifteen spherical battle, more and more it appeared that Johnson merely had Franklin’s quantity. Faster, extra aggressive and extra correct, the champion was having issues his manner and punishing Franklin with a gentle barrage of heavy blows. Johnson regarded sharp and was combating with confidence, whereas the person from Philadelphia appeared listless and simple to hit.
However Franklin got here alive within the fifth behind his left hook and a decided, two-fisted physique assault. Johnson all of the sudden couldn’t discover the vary for his uppercut because the challenger, for the primary time, compelled Marvin to offer floor. This led to a change in techniques for the champion, utilizing his southpaw jab to maintain Franklin at a distance, but when that nullified Franklin’s physique assault, it additionally created openings for Matthew’s most harmful weapon: the best hand. A minute into spherical six he nailed Johnson with it and adopted up with two large proper uppercuts and all of the sudden the tables have been formally turned: now it was the champion who was wilting as the challenger took command with left hooks to the physique and proper fingers to the pinnacle.
Johnson tried to reassert himself in spherical seven by being the busier fighter, choosing up the tempo and snapping house his proper jab with the left behind it. Nevertheless it was all for naught as simply seconds earlier than spherical’s finish Franklin struck with a vicious proper hand to the chin that took all of the battle out of the champion and nearly put him down. The challenger unloaded with each fingers, however the bell saved Johnson from sure doom, his cornermen grabbing him earlier than administering smelling salts and dousing him with water as he nearly fell off his stool in his nook.
To start out spherical eight Franklin confirmed extra snap in his jab than he had in any of the earlier rounds as he regarded to arrange the massive proper hand once more, however amazingly it was Johnson who struck as a substitute together with his overhand left: as soon as, twice, 3 times, the gang cheering him on as he knocked Matthew again on his heels. What adopted was an amazingly intense toe-to-toe change as Franklin, his face lined in blood, unloaded every thing he had, whereas Johnson saved throwing the massive left, however the challenger was simply too sturdy, too highly effective, too decided. A sequence of heavy blows drove the champion to the canvas. He beat the rely however the referee took a tough have a look at the extremely courageous however wounded warrior in entrance of him and waved his arms. The ferocious battle was over.
Matthew Franklin was the brand new WBC gentle heavyweight champion of the world. He would quickly change his title to Matthew Saad Muhammad, and within the span of some brief years go away an indelible mark on the brutal sport of pugilism. His thrilling clashes with Johnson, Yaqui Lopez, John Conteh, Dwight Braxton, amongst others, would cement his legacy as one of many bravest and most enjoyable champions in boxing historical past. However his inspiring triumphs in his two violent wars with Marvin Johnson will all the time be amongst his best performances.      — Neil CraneÂ
