JEFF POWELL: Anthony Joshua hails return of Dillian Whyte after Jermaine Franklin victory

Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte greeted each other warmly at the conclusion to a night for family, friends and a couple of thousand faithful fans.

Welcome back to the old boys clubs, bro.

Whyte is Joshua’s favourite opponent and the pair are on course for a profitable reunion. The Body Snatcher for dosh. AJ to aid his therapeutic rehab after the trauma of double whammy losses of consecutive world heavyweight title fights to the smaller but smarter Olexsandr Usyk.

Before that, this coming Saturday, Tyson Fury will give his buddy Derek Chisora a two million pound Christmas present by way of their third get-together in the ring. This one will be held before a crowd of more than 60,000 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Joshua v Whyte will doubtless fill London’s 02 some time between now and March.

Hopefully, at about the same time, Fury will become the first undisputed heavyweight champ since Lennox Lewis by swatting Usyk. That would restore the credibility which Fury brought to boxing’s marquee division in his epic trilogy with Deontay Wilder.

Whyte comes back into the picture and the money on the back of Saturday night’s arguable majority decision over the previously unbeaten but equally unknown Jermaine Franklin in a Wembley Arena cleverly scaled down by black-out curtaining to bring the loyalists in attendance into an atmospheric huddle. Not that they had too much to cheer.

Joshua sat ringside alongside Promoter Eddie Hearn as Whyte eased his way to victory

Their man struggled even though the imported American’s 21-win record was compiled against B-siders. By way of guts but not much guile the two of them slugged their way through 12 rounds of a back alley brawl. The kind which usually ends with the protagonists going back into the pub. Differences settled. Nothing much between them, which was the case in this fight.

Perhaps, as he had suggested, Whyte was being careful not to take out the gallant visitor too early for fear that it would scare off Joshua. If so, since promoter Eddie Hearn had promised the prize to the victor, then he cut it perilously close.

Although Whyte finished the stronger, the scores of 116-112 awarded by two of the judges were home-town generous in his favour. My card mirrored the 115-115 draw as seen by objective English official Michael Alexander.

But, hey-ho, the show rolls on.

The 34-year-old claimed a majority decision over the Jermaine Franklin on Saturday