By Sam Volz: Jermaine Franklin says Anthony Joshua will have no problems beating Dillian Whyte if he chooses to face him next. With Franklin’s fights against both guys, he’s a good judge of which of the two will win if they battle in a rematch in July.
The way that Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn repeatedly mentioned Whyte post-fight, it was clear that he’s the one that he wants AJ to fight next in July.
Ultimately, it’ll be up to Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) if he wants to face the struggling 34-year-old Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs) because he looks washed, and the popularity that he once had with British boxing fans has gone downhill.
Joshua kept his career alive last Saturday night with a 12-round unanimous decision win over Franklin (21-2, 14 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London. However, Joshua looked slow, gunshy, and not the fighter that he once was, and it’s painfully obvious that he’s not going to regain the form that he once had regardless of who trains him.
Franklin says Joshua beats Whyte
“I’m a little bit disappointed in my performance. I kind of lost my cool and was getting frustrated a lot,” said Jermaine Franklin to iFL TV in the aftermath of his loss to Anthony Joshua. “Once I got frustrated, it kind of took away from the game plan. I kind of took myself out of the fight.
“I think Joshua would beat Whyte. I don’t think that would be a hard fight for Joshua. Like I told everybody, it would be harder for Joshua to punch me because it’s harder for bigger guys to punch down than it is for shorter guys to punch up.
“When you’re taller, some of those shots are easier to get off. Yeah, I think Joshua beats Dillian. I’m coming back. Don’t forget about me. This ain’t going to be the last time you see me.
“In my opinion, I was landing the more significant shots,” said Franklin when asked how he felt he was doing in the first six rounds against Joshua. “He was probably landing more power shots, but I was landing more clean punches and getting the jab off better.
“I was slipping more punches, so I felt that I was in a little more control in the first six rounds. I tell everybody that I got a heart of steal, and I got a big will. That’s not something easy to break. You’ve got to take it from me. It’s not like I’m a pushover.
“People might think I’m a tune-up fight or a warm-up. It’s nothing like that. He tried to turn it up a little bit, but as a fighter, you see opportunities, and you try to take them,” Franklin said.
Referee angered Jermaine
“I think he thought he had me hurt more than I actually was, but there were a couple of times when he tried to step it up,” Franklin said. “He’s got some pop. Compared to how people were talking about him, but it wasn’t like I was scared of him or anything. I could trade, but it wasn’t the kind of power where I was afraid of getting hit.
“I was feeling good,” said Franklin when asked how he felt he was doing. “From what I seen, they had it all painted for him. We know how boxing goes.
“He was kind of p***ing me off, and that was kind of the reason why I was getting frustrated,” said Franklin when asked about his thoughts on the referee Marcus McDonnell. “I was like, ‘Some of this s**t was blatant, and you could blatantly see it.’
“I was getting collar-tied and stiff-armed. It was p***ing me off because the referee was on the side that it was happening on sometimes.
“I don’t know if you could see, but sometimes I didn’t even try to wrestle. I just lifted my arms and looked at the ref. I’m like, ‘Come on, I’m sitting here complaining about this. You’re not saying nothing and then you’re watching him do it. When I do say something, you say you don’t see it.
“I let the ref frustrate me and take me out of my game plan. It was like I was fighting two people in there,” said Franklin.
Joshua lost control
“He said it was during the heat of passion, but we’re all fighters,” said Franklin. “During the fight, I could understand, but after the fight, he was still trying to tough it up. Like I told him, ‘You don’t know nothing about me.’
“We exchanged a few words. I was actually on my way to his corner to shake their hands, and he turned around, trying to be all macho and stuff. That’s really how it kind of escalated, but it’s boxing. We all be heated during wartime.
“I don’t take too much from him, but we really could have gotten into that because I’m not soft. We really could have gotten into that without the gloves on. I’m just really glad that it turned into and that it got prevented before all that concluded.
“I couldn’t really hear him at first, but he was trying to talk some s**t about words that we exchanged during the fight. After I understood what he was saying, I reacted to it.
“I thought he was doing what I was going to do, going over there to say, ‘Good fight,’ but it turned out to be something else. At the end, he was trying to say that it was the heat of the moment type of s**t. The fights over now. I really didn’t understand it.
“Now, we didn’t cross paths. I was p***d. I was just ready to get up out of there.
“I couldn’t hear what Tony [Bellew] was saying, but he was just hating the whole night. Before we even came out there, we seen him on TV, talking to Dillian Whyte, and he was just throwing shade the whole time.
“I understand you’re from England, and he’s your guy and all that s**t, but he was just throwing shade. He might have said something that p***d the coach off while he was down there because I know he was throwing shade.
“If he was throwing shade like that, then I know he was throwing shade during the commentating. A lot of it being a reaction thing. You know there are a lot of emotions flying during fight time,” Jermaine said.
Franklin done fighting British fighters
“I like fighting over here. I love the English fans, but I won’t fight nobody English over here again,” Franklin said. “It’s not worth it to me or my career because I can kind of see how the road goes.
“It’s up to me to be able to fight under any circumstances, but I wouldn’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself again. If the right opportunity presents itself, but I’d rather fight somebody from England on neutral soil. It doesn’t even have to be in America.
“It’s got to be somewhere where we’re treated equally. Outside of that, I’ll fight some Americans over here. I have no problem fighting over here, but yeah, I got to leave the English guys alone over here. It’s not where it’s at,” said Franklin.
