EXCLUSIVE: Jermaine Franklin To Hold Anthony Joshua April 1 Fight Training Camp In Florida, Trainer Confirmed
Jermaine Franklin To Train In Florida With Jesse Addison For Career Biggest Fight
Britain’s former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) will return to the ring on Saturday, April 1 at London’s 18,000-capacity O2 Arena live on DAZN worldwide (NOT PPV). Joshua faces top 15, American Heavyweight Jermaine Franklin (21-1, 14 KOs).
Fight negotiations between the pair almost fell apart at the 11th hour on Sunday due to an unspecified last-minute delay that put the bout in jeopardy. Work was done throughout the night though to save the fight and pen was put to paper on Monday in time for the announcement. More news on this will be revealed soon by NoSmokeSport.
Joshua and Franklin meet at a launch press conference on Thursday in London to officially announce the contest. Both fighters are based out of America and will both be flying in for the news conference and media duties. A press conference was originally scheduled for last week in New York but contracts couldn’t be signed in time.
In the aftermath of the press conference, Franklin will return back to his training camp, which NoSmokeSport has been told will take place in Florida, USA under the guidance of his head trainer Jesse Addison. Joshua’s camp will be just over 1,000 miles away in Texas with his new trainer.
Earlier this year, NoSmokeBoxing broke the news that Joshua chose the 2017 Ring Magazine trainer of the year, Derrick James to be his new coach. James, who has his gym in Dallas, Texas, is the trainer of unified welterweight titleist, Errol Spence Jr and undisputed super welterweight champion, Jermell Charlo.
Joshua parted with long-term coach Robert McCracken after his first defeat to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, and since then his training situation has been the centre of wide speculation and debate. It is understood that the British star turned to Californian Robert Garcia in early 2022 and staged his camp for the Usyk rematch with Garcia.
However, after just one camp with the American, the British star will once again move trainers as he now turns to the expertise of the highly-respected Derrick James. In his search for a new coach, Joshua is understood to have approached Virgil Hunter and Roy Jones Jr amongst other legendary names in the boxing industry.
Franklin is best known for his closely contested defeat in November at the hands of Dillian Whyte via a 115-115, 116-112 and 116-112 majority decision. The result was controversial with the majority of fans edging the fight to Franklin but it was Whyte who got the decision.
Joshua returning on the back of consecutive defeats at the hands of P4P king Oleksandr Usyk cannot afford to come second best on April 1 or it may well be curtains for the British superstar’s storied career.
A win keeps dream fights with Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury alive for the latter part of 2023 or 2024 and sees AJ join rival Whyte in wins over Franklin before they rematch in the summer.