Many people are excited to see big-hitting heavyweight Deontay Wilder back in the ring, and one man who put up a solid showing against Anthony Joshua has now offered to make it happen.
Throughout this year fans were told Wilder and Joshua would finally get in the ring with each other at the start of 2024 out in Saudi Arabia, but talks have gone cold due to a shift in the nation’s boxing landscape.
That leaves both men looking for an opponent as they continue to rebuild after high-profile losses – Joshua twice to Oleksandr Usyk and Wilder twice to Tyson Fury.
One of ‘AJ’s comeback wins was against American Jermaine Franklin, who took him the full 12 rounds and provided a good test, as he did against Dillian Whyte.
Though he lost both fights on points over 12 rounds, Franklin marked himself out as a solid contender in the process. Speaking to Seconds Out, he confirmed that Wilder was in his sights.
“Yeah, I mean, anybody at the top. I feel like, with all due respect, if you’re at the top, you’re standing in the way. I’m a competitor at the end of the day and I got a family to feed.”
He was then asked if he would follow the blueprint to beat Wilder set by former sparring partner Fury, but stopped short of fully agreeing.
“I can’t really say that cause me and Fury are two different style fighters. But I seen some things that he was doing that could help.
I seen some of the things he did when we sparred. I’d utilise that. I don’t want to steal stuff from people. But we’re perfecting our prep, I view a lot of footage, I see small things to use but I wouldn’t say he gave me an overall game plan of beating Wilder.”
“I mean yeah, he has power, you have to be aware of the power, you don’t want to be putting yourself in a situation where you get clobbered with the right hand, but I like to box, I like to brawl. When the time presents itself, I’ll be strategic but do what I gotta do. I”ll try to be smart about it.”
Franklin against Wilder would present a solid enough fight for both men at this stage in their careers, and some welcome activity for the latter, who has been out of the ring since October last year, and even then that only lasted one round.