Franklin – I want to knock out Joshua

Franklin – I want to knock out Joshua

Heavyweight contender Jermaine Franklin is going to aim for a knockout victory when he faces former two-time world champion Anthony Joshua at the 02 Arena in London on April 1.

Last November, Franklin lost a close 12-round decision to Dillian Whyte at Wembley Arena, with many observers adjudging the American to have won the fight or should at least have gotten a draw.

Now facing a much bigger name than Whyte, Franklin is not looking to take any chances by allowing the bout with Joshua to reach the judges.

“I’m trying to knock Joshua out. I know I’m probably not going to get no fair shake over here. That’s our mentality, kill. I don’t want to sh*t on nobody, but we’ve already kind of been through that. We kind of just got through that situation,” Franklin told IFL TV.

“Honestly, because I won the last fight on points. The CompuBox numbers say I outpunched him in almost every round, by four rounds and they gave him the fight. I feel like I’m in a position where I have to knock him out or dominate the whole fight, extremely dominate the whole fight.”

Franklin complained that the fight against Whyte was not fair against him with majority of the decisions going the Brit’s way.

“I watched (the Whyte fight) probably like two-three times, I felt like I won. There was a lot of cheating going on in that damn fight. I was like, ‘Damn, I just need a bit of fairness.’ I kept getting clubbed, low-blows, headbutted, all types of sh*t. But as soon as I did something, the ref was on me. I was like, ‘Yeah, all I asked for was a fair shake.’ I know I ain’t gonna get a fair shake on everything but at least keep me protected in the ring. That was the biggest thing I took from it, besides that I thought I easily won the fight 7-5,” he said.

British-Nigerian Joshua is keen to get his career back on track by beating Franklin, after suffering consecutive defeats to champion Oleksandr Usyk and for that has enlisted the help of world-renowned trainer, Derrick James.