By Barry Holbrook: Former Mike Tyson opponent, Julius Francis, knocked out cold an unruly person on Monday while working as a security officer at BOXPARK Wembley in London, England.
The 57-year-old Francis, who held the British heavyweight title during the height of his long thirteen-year professional career, poleaxed the aggressive person with a right hand to the head that knocked him out cold.
……. pic.twitter.com/92kmGmtiBx
— Glory Glory (@gloryglorytott) June 13, 2022
Previous to this, the rowdy person, shouting obscenities left & right, had seen shoving, screaming, and aggressively attacking people in the crowd. The security continued to push the person away.
Moments after the person slugged one of the security staff in the face and walked away; he was dropped by the burly Francis.
Walking up to Francis was the wrong thing to do, as he knew how to defend himself, and he didn’t hesitate to nail the person with a straight right hand that dropped him flat in his tracks.
What led to the individual getting punched by Francis is that he walked up on him and his hands raised. Francis instinctively reacted by slugging the person in the head out of a need for self-protection.
The saying goes, ‘Once a boxer, always a boxer.’ Even though Francis’ career ended sixteen years ago in 2006, he still knows how to punch, as we see in the video clip of him dropping this angry person.
Francis’ employer, CEO Roger Wade of BOXPARK, is backing him for what happened during the incident on Monday.
BOXPARK founder/CEO Roger Wade has put out a statement on the Julius Francis incident: "I stand with Julius." pic.twitter.com/mXgzvGsmmG
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) June 14, 2022
Wade states that Francis and the other security staff had spent 15 minutes trying to control the angry individual before the viral incident of him being punched took place.
Francis fought Mike Tyson in January 2000 and was knocked out in the second round in Manchester, England, in a fight that received significant attention.
Two years earlier, Francis lost to Vitali Klitschko by a second-round knockout in 1998. Vitali would later capture the WBC heavyweight title and become one of the top fighters in the division.
“When your mouth writes a check,” said Chris Mannix, reacting to Francis knocking out the person.
During Francis’ long career, he also fought these heavyweights:
- Danny Williams
- Oleg Maskaev
- Sinan Samil Sam
- Axel Schulz
- Michael Holden
- Luan Krasniqi
- Taras Bydenko
- Matt Skelton
- Audley Harrison
- Alexander Dimitrenko
- Roman Greenberg
- Željko Mavrović
- Scott Welch
- James Oyebola
