Franklin Finds the Courage to Resume World Title Bid

Jeff Franklin is the United States Boxing Assn. featherweight champion. Hugo Anguiano is the California featherweight champion. They fought each other Tuesday night for the championship of nothing.

In a rare non-title fight between two title-holders, Franklin pounded out a 10-round unanimous decision over Anguiano in a bout at the Country Club in Reseda that pitted Franklin’s speed and boxing skills against the plodding but courageous Anguiano.

Anguiano, however, didn’t have all the courage. Franklin was fighting less than a month after his fists sent a friend and a sparring partner to the canvas during a workout in Las Vegas. The friend, 24-year-old Harold Watts, never got up. He was pronounced dead two days later from a brain aneurysm.

“For the first few days, I was through with boxing,” Franklin said. “Harold’s death tore me to pieces. I had told myself when I turned pro that if anyone ever died at my hands, that would be it. There would be no more boxing. But the coroner told me Harold didn’t die from my punches. He died after he fainted and hit his head on the canvas. The doctors convinced me it wasn’t from a punch.”

And with encouragement to continue his boxing career coming from the most unlikely source of all--the dead fighter’s mother--Franklin decided to resume his pursuit of a world title.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” he said. “It hurts a lot. You think about it when you box, but when something like this actually happens when you’re in the ring, it’s just unbelievable. But everyone convinced me that Harold didn’t die at my hands. He was actually getting the better of me in our sparring match, and I caught him with a good punch and hurt him a little, but he told me, ‘I’m OK. Let’s keep working.’ Then we broke and walked to our corners and several seconds later he fainted and fell face-down on the canvas. His head made an awful sound when it hit. The coroner said that without a doubt, it was that fall that killed him.

“So now, I’ll go on. I’ll think about Harold. But I’ll go on.”

Franklin hurt Anguiano in the final three rounds with swift combinations and dominated all but the first two rounds. His record is 20-2-3. Anguiano fell to 12-12-1.

In an earlier bout, Young Dick Tiger, a Nigerian living in North Hollywood and training at the Ten Goose Gym, knocked down Octavio Robles (12-5) of Mexico City in the first round and went on to score a unanimous 10-round decision. Tiger, ranked 12th by the World Boxing Council among welterweights, is 24-4.