Jermaine Franklin’s promoter believes that Dillian Whyte may be complacent ahead of his fight this weekend.
Whyte faces Franklin live on DAZN to end the year with a bout in London, and the former WBC mandatory champion is the 12-1 favourite ahead of the clash against the unbeaten American.
Salita, however, thinks that while Whyte is looking for a fight to ease his way back into the ring after losing to Tyson Fury in his title shot match-up, Franklin will be a tough opponent.
“He’s an undefeated American heavyweight, but he’s had sparse activity because of COVID and things and there’s not a lot of viable fighters in the heavyweight division,” Salita said to BoxingScene.com. “I do believe they’re looking past him. Even in that promo video, where Dillian Whyte spoke bad of the fight, he says, ‘There was no one better to fight.’ So, I do believe he’s overlooking Jermaine.
“Dillian Whyte is a very experienced guy. He fought Tyson Fury in his last fight, in a massive event. He fought Povetkin twice before that. So, name-wise, Jermaine is obviously not as accomplished and not as big as those guys. So, without a doubt, he’s taking Jermaine lightly.”
He continued: “I think the key factor in the fight will be that Dillian Whyte is pretty explosive in the first three rounds. After that, he slows down, he gets sloppy and his chin becomes more susceptible. Jermaine has a good chin, is pretty active, good jab, good power, and I believe that after the fourth round it’ll be Jermaine’s fight to win.
“Jermaine is a young, hungry fighter. He’s a [2014] national Golden Gloves champion who has had some solid wins in his career. I believe it’s a real close, close fight, difficult. A young prospect in Jermaine and Dillian Whyte, who’s a proven veteran who’s a bit on the other side of his peak. So, for that reason I believe that it’s Jermaine’s fight to win. I believe that he has the ability, the stamina and the will to be a champion, to be a top heavyweight. And he’s definitely gonna put it all on the line November 26th – there’s no doubt about that.”