ANTHONY JOSHUA will be hit with a barrage of ABUSE in Saturday’s comeback fight.
For US opponent Jermaine Franklin vowed to pummel Britain’s dethroned world heavyweight champ with a combination of trash-talking taunts during their clash at London’s O2.
Joshua, 33, is desperate to reignite his career following damaging double defeats to Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, who took his WBA, WBO and IBF belts.
But Franklin, 29, insists he will come out swinging with all the verbals and mock “p***y” Joshua once the bell goes.
Michigan heavyweight Franklin, who has a record of 21 wins, one loss and no draws, visited SunSport’s London HQ to reveal his fight plan.
He admitted: “I talk trash in the ring but not before the fight.
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“In the ring I might call him soft, or a p***y, I start my talk in the ring.
“Outside the ring I might not say much, but inside you might hear me tell him: ‘Your momma hits harder than you’.
“Trash talk outside the ring is not my persona, I do it in the ring, during the fight, in the clinches.
“I want to frustrate my opponent in the ring. I’m probably too silly to trash talk outside of it, I will make myself laugh and not be able to stop giggling.
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“But my switch flicks in the ring and I get more ruthless.
“In my Dillian Whyte fight in November I called him weak. One time he hit me and I told him: ‘You’re too soft’.”
Franklin suffered a controversial points loss to Whyte in that fight.
But he has also spent a fortnight sparring with Britain’s undefeated WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury at his Morecambe home.
The American learned loads from the 34-year-old Gypsy King but will happily go to war with him — as he showed by chinning his cut-out in our office.
Franklin explained: “Morecambe was nice but it is in the middle of nowhere.
“It’s a small town and everybody there knows Tyson and looks out for him.
“The first day we were there, people running restaurants and stores were picking up on our looks and accents and asking us what we were doing in the area. We told them we were training with Tyson.
“But someone must have called Tyson and told him, because the next second he pulled up in his car to check that everything was OK!
“I thought ‘wow’, I had no idea he was so involved in the community, he is loved up there.
“I learned a lot but I want to fight all the best guys, so if Tyson wants it, he can get it.”
And father-of-three Franklin, who has a wonderful background story of being brought up by two powerful grandmothers, will help his Saginaw community in Michigan with Saturday’s purse.
And he reckons that Joshua was bluffing when he said his comeback — after back-to-back world title losses to Usyk in 2021 and 2022 — was just about boosting his bank balance.
He said: “That was just a deflection or a mental tactic.
“To make out like he doesn’t really care about this fight.
“He is with a big promoter and he reigned as a champion for about ten years so he doesn’t need money — there’s no way he’s broke.
“He might want people to think he doesn’t care, but I could have said I was only fighting for the money, to catch him off guard.
“Anyone can bluff like that.”
Franklin will insult and assault AJ for every moment of their London showdown.
But he claims the London 2012 golden boy has got unfair stick after his empire crumbled over two legs against the Ukraine ace.
He explained: “I love the sport so — until someone can show me that AJ is finished — I will not question him, he has done too much.
“As a fighter, I cannot just turn on him when he is an Olympic gold medal winner who reigned as a world champion for a long time.
“I take points off Joshua for losing to Usyk twice, because he was only a cruiserweight who moved up.
“But if Usyk never loses then AJ’s stock goes up.
“However, if Usyk gets beat in his next fight, then it will look bad on AJ.
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“We jump the gun too much in this sport. It’s not like basketball or soccer, where once you are great, you are great.
“He is great, but I hope to be greater.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
