By Brian Webber: Anthony Joshua & Jermain Franklin “agree to all terms” for a heavyweight clash in the main event on April 1st at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Sky Sports reports the news of Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) and the talented American Franklin (21-1, 14 KOs) agreeing to terms for a mouth-watering 12 round headliner in two months. A press conference will be next week to announce the fight and get the ball rolling for the promotion.
“Anthony Joshua and Jermaine Franklin ‘agree all terms’ for a heavyweight fight in London on April 1,” per Sky Sports.
“Joshua and Franklin will go head to head at a press conference next week after reaching an agreement for their fight.
Joshua is coming back with a new trainer, American Derrick James, hoping to rebuild his career from the ground up to turn things around after losing his last two fights and three out of his last five since 2019.
It’s logical to assume that Joshua’s fighting style will look vastly different from what we’ve seen from him in his last two fights against Oleksandr Usyk, both of which he lost while attempting to box him.
While some boxing fans believe that Joshua will continue to go along the same path by trying to transform himself into a boxer at 33, James may return AJ to the aggressive fighter that brought him so much success earlier in his career and in his amateur career.
The popular fighters James trains, Jermell Charlo, Errol Spence Jr, and Frank Martin, are known for being aggressive sluggers. That seems to be the style that James prefers to train his fighter, and he’s got to know from having watched Joshua attempt to remake himself into a boxer that hasn’t worked and it doesn’t promise ever to work.
Surprisingly, Joshua has taken flake from British boxing fans, who are less than pleased that he chose Franklin as his opponent rather than Dillian Whyte or one of the other well known heavyweights.
Franklin isn’t ranked in the top 15 after losing a questionable 12 round majority decision to Whyte last November in London. It’s unusual for the sanctioning bodies to drop a fighter from their top 15 when they lost a controversial decision, as we saw with Franklin, but it’s happened in his case.
“I am interested to see Joshua. I’m interested to see how he comes back,” 2020 Olympic silver medalist Torrez said to Sky Sports, “How he comes at the fight stylistically.
“If he comes out there and he does what he’s supposed to do, and he has the gameplan necessary, I think he’ll take the fight. And if not, it’s all up to him,” said Torrez.