Jermaine Franklin has warned Anthony Joshua that he is in for a “rude awakening” when they clash in a scheduled 12-round heavyweight contest at The O2 in London this Saturday April 1, shown live worldwide on DAZN.
Former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua makes his highly anticipated return to the ring on UK soil following his second loss to pound-for-pound star and unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia, but Franklin insists that he isn’t here just to make up the numbers.
“For him, they say his career is on the line. For me, everything is on the line,” said Franklin. “That’s how I treat every fight. I’ve been boxing all my life and I’m not nervous for this. If you get nervous, you’re in the wrong sport.
“The circumstances around this fight are very different. For the Dillian [Whyte] fight I was working a job before we got that phone call. I wasn’t in the gym. We took like 5-7 weeks to get in shape for that fight. For the time I had I did what I could. This time I’ve got more time to prepare and more time to get in shape. We’re doing all we can.
Franklin added, "Fans are going to see me come out and fight way better fight than the Dillian fight. It is time for people to take me seriously. This is my new dawn. It’s my time to make my claim. I want to knock his ass out, that’s the goal.”