27-year-old former WBA super Flyweight Champion "El Profesor" Joshua Franco formally announced his retirement yesterday. The Alamo City native compiled an 18-2-3 (8), record and captured the WBA 115-pound strap in June of 2020 at the Top Rank Bubble in Las Vegas. He rallied late and scored an 11th-round knockdown on his way to outpointing Andrew Moloney. He kept the title from 2020 till this weekend when he lost it on the scale when he missed weight in his title defense against Kaz Ioka. Franco dropped a close and competitive decision to Ioka on Saturday.
The former champ turned pro in 2015 at the Belasco Theatre and recorded a decision victory over Temoatzin Landeros Castillo. It was a Thursday night Golden Boy card where Franco's long-time friend Hector Tanajara also made his pro debut on. He captured the attention of the boxing world on September 17th, 2016, when he gave an eye-opening performance at AT&T stadium on the Undercard of Canelo-Liam Smith, the Texan dropped Bryan Bazan four times on his way to a fourth-round KO. In April 2019, he settled the score with Oscar Negrete. The two fought to a disputed draw in 2018. In the rematch Franco removed all doubt in outpointing his opponent in a thrilling scrap to capture the NABF Bantamweight title.
The next year was a massive one for Franco, who fought in his home city for the only time and stopped Jose Alejandro Burgos in the ninth round at the Alamodome and received a rokus applause from his hometown fans. Later that year he decisioned Moloney to capture the world title. Franco fought just once in 2021, and gave a career best performance in beating down Moloney in their trilogy match and once more in 2022 and was robbed of a career defining win with Ioka and had to settle for a draw.
Franco discussed the idea of retirement in an April interview prior to his brother Bam Rodriguez's fight with Cristian Gonzalez. He formally released a statement on social media following Saturday's Ioka fight announcing his retirement:
I wanted to start off by saying Thank You to everyone that has supported me in my career. I appreciate everyone for their continued support. I was able to live my childhood dream of becoming a World Champion. I defended my title multiple times all over the world and always tried my best to represent San Antonio, TX proudly.
For the majority of my career I have been going through a lot of mental problems that I was doing my best to control. I never talked about it publicly because I didn’t want anyone to think I ever made an excuse for anything or for anyone to look at me different. I battled through it as much as I could to still perform and give you guys some great fights. For anyone that battles through any type of mental health issues please know you are not alone. And you can’t let anything stop you from achieving your dreams
I want to say Thank You to my team. My mom, dad and brothers for all their help and support throughout my whole career. Everyone at RGBA for believing in me helping me achieve my dreams. You guys always believed in me and I will forever be grateful.
Last night in Tokyo, Japan was officially my last fight. It was a tough week for me and I didn’t get the result I wanted but I leave this sport knowing I gave it everything I had
Again Thank You to everyone for all their support and I’ll see you guys around