JERMAINE FRANKLIN was making insulation wool for a roofing firm last year and now holds the key to Anthony Joshua not stuffing up his career.
After much hype and big-battle rumours, 33-year-old AJ has selected the 29-year-old American to be his comeback opponent on April 1 – no joke – at Wembley Arena.
Because Eddie Hearn insisted his star attraction and London 2012 legend would not accept a gimme-comeback.
He even suggested a Dillian Whyte rematch – but this will underwhelm fans.
Even though Franklin took Whyte the distance in November – where he lost a close decision – he proved he is desperately short of fitness and power and will pose little-to-no-threat to the Joshua rebuild.
Thankfully, the hard-working Michigan man will earn life-changing money that will keep one of those snug roofs over his and his family’s head for many years.
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In the build-up to his Whyte loss, where he pushed the Body Snatcher too close for comfort with frequent but zip-free digs, Franklin said: “Every fight helps, every payday helps.
“It’s not just one, it is all of them.”
When he was still a child growing up in the deprived-but-proud city of Saginaw, he moved into live with his grandmother Bernice, helping her around the home as she struggled with mobility.
It seems he has always been fighting for his family and his community and now he has three children of his own, the cause has never been more important.
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“I moved in to help my granny out when I was still in high school,” he revealed. “To take care of her.
“That’s my grandmother so I can never just let her go without, it’s got to be done.
“That’s some of the things boxing has given me; how to control my temper and how to stay focused.
“My community has always supported me, even though it was a little rough growing up. But every area has a rough area so we just overcome as much as we can.
“We all hit that wall sometimes but they help me and push me.”
Franklin could have made some very easy money when he last visited the UK by acting up and making a name for himself.
He could have talked trash and put his high-heeled boots up on the press conference table, like Jarrell Miller did when he visited to sell a doomed AJ fight.
He could have labelled himself a “king” like Charles Martin did before he surrendered his world title to AJ on 2015, ending one of the worst reigns in the history of the division.
He could, like so many metaphorically and literally hungry fighters, have made a spectacle of himself.
A pantomime villain to secure himself a recurring role in a series of soap opera shows.
Instead, in both the build-up and the painful fall-out when he was on the harsh side of an away decision, he kept his cool and his class and helped get himself another fight.
But this is no overnight success, he has been grafting – as both an opponent and a sparring partner – for almost a decade.
Franklin said: “Everyday is a grind. Some days you wake up tired and cramping and it feels like you are fighting yourself, really. But I make it happen.”
His lack of knockout power means boxing intelligence is essential and he has been showing ring smarts for as long as he has been on the periphery of the big stage.
In 2019, when asked to evaluate the division’s biggest hitters, he said of Joshua, who was yet to lose to Andy Ruiz Jr and Oleksandr Usyk: “AJ can punch but he will always be tired after about six or seven rounds.
“He will always punch himself out. All of those big guys are the same.”
But Franklin prefers to use his dialogue for something much more respectable.
He said: “I don’t pray for success. If you want success you have to go out and get it.
“I pray to God to thank him for the chance to go out and get my success and giving me the life that I already have.
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“Prayer has always been a big part of what I am doing.”
With God in his corner, he might be more dangerous than Team Joshua thinks.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
