BoxRec

Fightnews.com is reporting that Julius Francis returns to Russia to fight potential Mike Tyson opponent Oleg Maskaev in a 10-rounder in Moscow today (Thursday, November 27). Francis is being lined up as the next opponent for English heavyweight champion Matt Skelton, so let's hope he doesn't fare too badly over there.

also on the same card facing a particularly tough fight is Chris Nembhard.
He is fighting undeaten Denis Inkin, who has beaten Mger Mrtkechen (sp) and who was a top Russian amateur.

I see Julius Francis being a good foe for Matt Skelton although i wonder just how much he has left to give, if he fights Maskaev then i can see the Skelton fight in potential jeapordy though, if Maskaev can still punch then he could stop Francis early but if Francis pulls off the win he could decide he has bigger fish to fry than Skelton. Francis is not quite shot though as his performances in Germany against Sam and both fights with Steffen Nielsen showed, he can still be dangerous but i view him as little more than an "opponent" nowadays.

I hope Jules doesnt get hurt against Maskaev!

I do think he will be a good opponent for Skelton though,He will test Skelton and provide good experrience for him.

HH

LOL! jules pull off an upset v maskaev?? about as likely as peter mcneeley pulling off an upset in a tyson rematch.

oleg will squash poor old jules like a pesky gnat.

I guess I'll probably offend a few here but anyway.

I cannot abide Julius Francis.

As a fighter what he lacks (pace, speed, footwork, power etc etc) FAR outweighs what he has (....................).

As an commentator he has RUINED endless hours of Ringside and the like with his almost Eubank-esque ramblings, "know what I means" and general lack of anything to say.

As an Individual - anyone who gets the soles of his feet sponsored by a "newspaper" lacks both the integrity and intelligence to prevent both (firstly) his sport and (lastly and in his case, unimportantly) his own credibilty being ridiculed.

Before all of you start with your "it's a tough sport, you have to earn where you can."

For me pride has to come into it somewhere and imo that was just embarrassing, not funny, just humiliating.

100% agreement, with his behaviour in and out of the ring, jules is one guy we can all quite safely say is an outright BUM. all hail the bum!

The thing which annoys me with Jules is the amount of times he goes "Erm" when he is commentating etc on my life he says it about 3-4 times a minute...

HH

overhand_right wrote:100% agreement, with his behaviour in and out of the ring, jules is one guy we can all quite safely say is an outright BUM. all hail the bum!

I am not one to call any boxer a BUM (and it annoys me when those "in the trade" do so), however Julius Francis is about as close as it gets.

Danny Williams should have retired after losing to him - that defeat on his record tells me all I have to know about his potential.

Lugh wrote:

overhand_right wrote:100% agreement, with his behaviour in and out of the ring, jules is one guy we can all quite safely say is an outright BUM. all hail the bum!

I am not one to call any boxer a BUM (and it annoys me when those "in the trade" do so), however Julius Francis is about as close as it gets.

Danny Williams should have retired after losing to him - that defeat on his record tells me all I have to know about his potential.

Bloody hell, you're tetchy today, Lugh Funnily enough, I kinda agree about Francis and the advertising on his boots. How are you supposed to respect someone who does that?

julius grew up in Peckham, probably had to hustle for every pound he got.
when he turned pro he had to fight in obscure places for little more than 3 figure purses...
Then in what could possibly be his last fight someone offers him £50000 just for having a name on the bottom of his boots.....
Whilst its not something you would do by choice, he was getting the equivalent of two british title fights just for a label...

Yeah it was in bad taste but you cannot judge the man on it...

At the end of the day that could pay for his childrens education at a private school....

I personally do not believe that Julius will be much of an opponant for Skelton, and i can see skelton doing a real number on him.

As for him personally, well there are far worse characters in heavyweight boxing, who are held in far higher esteem.

i think Julius got stopped in two rounds from what i read at a russian website....

knockout wrote:i think Julius got stopped in two rounds from what i read at a russian website....

Cheers, Knockout.

bennie wrote:

knockout wrote:i think Julius got stopped in two rounds from what i read at a russian website....

Cheers, Knockout.

from boxing.ru:
i am pretty sure ОЛЕГ МАКСКАЕВ= oleg maskaev

28 Ноября ОЛЕГ МАКСКАЕВ: КО2!
Вчера на турнире в Чехове российский тяжеловес Олег Маскаев во 2-м раунде нокаутировал британца Джулиуса Фрэнсиса.

Олег продолжил серию побед в 1,2 раунде.

top level heavies seem to get jules outof there in 2 rds, pretty easily.

after 14 rds with the man, danny williams is yet to get jules outof there.

what does that tell ya?!

knockout wrote:julius grew up in Peckham, probably had to hustle for every pound he got.
when he turned pro he had to fight in obscure places for little more than 3 figure purses...
Then in what could possibly be his last fight someone offers him £50000 just for having a name on the bottom of his boots.....
Whilst its not something you would do by choice, he was getting the equivalent of two british title fights just for a label...

Yeah it was in bad taste but you cannot judge the man on it...

At the end of the day that could pay for his childrens education at a private school....

I am no Christian but do accept the quote "By thine own actions shall ye be judged" - Knockout - who else are you suggesting should be judged for the degredation of the purest form of contest in sport?

Secondly - if the Daily Star paid him £50000 then I am an Englishman. I bet his purse for the whole fight wasn't much more.

It was £20,000 anfd the Daily Mirror.

Whenever I have seen Julius - he has been cool and signed a copy of Boxing news for me back in the day..

Always willing to talk boxing..!

He earns quite well nowadays.

JF is fine by me..

Who says what Francis did was degrading? That's just your opinion. It was the Mike Tyson show. The match was already a joke. Nobody thought it was anything approaching a competitive fight. Who gave a shit about Francis? Nobody. Julius got himself a nice bit of extra for doing absolutely nothing extra. That is just called being smart. I can't believe anyone would seriously hold it against Francis for not turning down the money.

Fightnews.com have just confirmed the result:

Maskaev stops Francis in two!
By Alexandre Belenki (Sport-Express) at ringside
American-based heavyweight Oleg Maskaev (27-5; 22 KOs), who for the first time in five years fought in his Russian homeland, seems to be finally back on track. On Thursday night in Chekhov, in the Moscow region, he quickly disposed of Britain’s Julius Francis (23-15-1; 12 KOs): it is now his fifth knockout win in a row. After a slow first round easily won by Maskaev mainly with his hard jab, the Russian contender opened up in the second and knocked Francis down with a devastating right cross. Julius beat the count but was clearly out on his feet. Maskaev quicly followed up and knocked him down again with a combination of punches and the fight was eventually stopped.

This reinforces my belief that Skelton will crush francis.

His workrate and power will probably retire the man.

I met Julius at the Williams v Sprott undercard, and he was very friendly, shook hands without having to be introduced, very calm and mild mannered, and happy to chat about the fight.

I have more respect for Francis, that I do for Tyson making the money he did for fighting Francis, that was money for old rope, Julius at least took his lumps for the money, good luck to him if he can get 20k out of the daily mirror.

the trouble with francis is that he never gets to train for 4 or 5 weeks for a certain fight,

maybe this wont make a difference in his fights but if he fought skelton i would like to see a 2 month notice, so francis will be 100% ready and could give skelton troubles then,