Jermaine Franklin believes his smaller stature could be an advantage in his fight with Anthony Joshua.
The pair will clash on April 1 at the O2 Arena in London and this will be the first time Joshua has fought without a world title involved since 2015.
In the last few years, 6ft 6in Joshua has suffered defeats against 6ft 2in Andy Ruiz Jr and 6ft 3in Oleksandr Usyk, which has given encouragement to Franklin who stands at 6ft 2in.
“I see that he struggles a little bit with smaller guys,” Franklin told talkSPORT’s Gareth A Davies.
“He likes to trade at points in the fight, so we’ve been looking at that and looking at different ways we can attack and adjustments we can make to make it more comfortable.”
In terms of a prediction for fight night, Franklin said: “If it’s not a knockout then it will be a domination brutally.
“I’ll go at him, see what he’s going to do and see if I can make him make mistakes early.”
talkSPORT’s own Spencer Oliver agrees with Franklin’s assessment of the fight. “[Joshua] struggles with the smaller guys, we saw that against Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 and against Oleksandr Usyk.
“So, this is a tough fight for Anthony Joshua because Jermaine Franklin has come in and although he lost to Dillian Whyte a lot of people thought he won and he was a little bit hard done by, so he will have taken a lot from that.
“He’ll realise that he can compete at this level and he’ll know that Anthony Joshua right now is very vulnerable…
Oliver continued: “Franklin and all the opponents who box Anthony Joshua will now have the confidence because they know he is slightly vulnerable and they know he can be hit and he can be hurt.”
Joshua vs Franklin on talkSPORT
Anthony Joshua’s quest to become a three-time heavyweight champion begins on 1 April against Jermaine Franklin and talkSPORT will be live from London’s O2 to bring you coverage of the fight.
You can tune in to talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com, DAB digital radio, download the talkSPORT app, or ask your smart speaker to play talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2. talkSPORT is also widely available across the UK on 1089 or 1053 AM.
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News Summary:
- Jermaine Franklin says Anthony Joshua ‘struggles with smaller guys’ and predicts brutal domination or KO
- Check all news and articles from the latest Boxing updates.