Jermaine Franklin idolises Evander Holyfield and wants to bring back excitement of 90s era heavyweights like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, starting with his fight vs Anthony Joshua on April 1
Jermaine Franklin has told marvelbet369.com that he is hoping to revitalise heavyweight boxing if he beats Anthony Joshua on April 1.
The 21-1 (14 KOs) American heavyweight contender lost a contentious split decision to Dillian Whyte in November, but has seized the opportunity to jump straight into an even bigger fight.
This attitude is seemingly inspired by Franklin's idols.
The 29-year-old named the 90s era of heavyweights as his best-loved, with one former champion particularly inspirational to him.
"Most of my favourite guys are old," Franklin told marvelbet369.com.
"My favourite heavyweight of all time is Evander Holyfield.
"I like the older generation of boxers, I feel like - no knock on nobody now, but in those eras the statue of man was different.
"It's a little shaky now, but those guys were warriors.
"Everybody wanted to fight each other, nobody ducked people for money and it was none of the extra stuff that comes with boxing.
"I kinda miss that, I wanna bring that excitement back to the sport.
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"You had top guys fighting each other almost every month.
"Somebody's fighting, you don't have to wait six months, a year, five years to make a fight, it was just happening.
"I kinda wanna bring that excitement back and that's probably the only promise I can make to boxing - if they put me in a position to where I'm unifying, I'm fighting.
"We're not running, we're not hiding, we're fighting.
"I at least wanna fight three or four times per year as a top guy."