Eddie Hearn has dangled a seriously lucrative carrot in front of American heavyweight Jermaine Franklin, by telling him a fight with Anthony Joshua sits in waiting if he manages to upset Dillian Whyte at Wembley Arena this Saturday.
Hearn was mediating a face off between Whyte and Franklin on Matchroom’s YouTube channel when he told ‘The 989 Assassin’ that victory against Whyte would secure him a career high payday against Joshua in 2023.
“I will say, as the promoter for this fight, if you win this fight, you’re getting the Anthony Joshua fight.”
“For you to come over as an American, to beat a Brit in London, you would get that fight. And you would make millions of dollars.”
Franklin boasts an unblemished record of 21 wins and zero defeats, with 14 of his victories coming inside the distance. Despite this, he still arrives on UK shores as somewhat of an unknown quantity, having not boxed a particularly high level of opposition. That in mind, Whyte represents by far the toughest test of his career to date.
The clash on November 26th will be Whyte’s first outing since his stoppage defeat to WBC world champion Tyson Fury back in April, and ‘The Bodysnatcher’ will be keen to silence his detractors and prove he still has something to offer at the top end of the blue ribbon division.
Whyte himself has been heavily linked with a fight with Anthony Joshua in what would be a rematch of their 2015 bout, where he was stopped by ‘AJ’ in the seventh round.
Eddie Hearn has been quoted as saying there is potential for the all British affair to be held in a stadium next summer – but all that goes out the window should Whyte fail to come through Franklin this weekend.