With his once glistening record officially sullied, it appeared likely that Jermaine Franklin would take several steps back. Those assumptions, of course, came off the back of his highly controversial majority decision defeat at the hands of Dillian Whyte just a few short months ago.
As the American heavyweight contender sat in his room in disbelief, he was delighted when his phone rang with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity awaiting on the other line.
Fresh off back-to-back defeats against Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) is attempting to jump back into the win column. Viewed as essentially a panacea, Franklin will take on the former Olympic gold medalist this Saturday night at the O2 Arena.
Pegged as a gargantuan underdog, Franklin (21-1, 14 KOs) recently acknowledged that most of the boxing world is counting him out. In any event, while his detractors have continued to snooze on his chances at pulling off the upset, Franklin is readying his alarm clock.
“We don’t play boxing,” said Franklin to Matchroom Boxing during an interview. “I come here to wake him and the rest of the world up.”
Thanks to his strong showing against Whyte, the 29-year-old from Saginaw, Michigan, has seen his stock rise. Prior to his back-and-forth brawl against the Londoner, Franklin struggled with momentum. Still, regardless of his career stalling far more than he would like, Franklin has never lost faith in his lofty goals.
Although he hasn’t quite climbed to the top of the heavyweight mountain just yet, Franklin plans on doing so in short order, preferably by using the unconscious carcass of Joshua as a springboard. More than anything, as long as everything goes according to plan, Franklin reveals that he’ll move to the next phase of his career, one that involves a dominant title reign.
“I wanna be a unified world champion.”