Heavyweight sensation Jermaine "The Assassin" Franklin is back, and he will return to action next month (May 23) for his first comeback in 10 months, and his opponent has been decided......
When it comes to Franklin, fans remember him the most in a fierce 12-round fight with Anthony Joshua last April. Before the game, Joshua was highly regarded as a man who would easily stop Franklin, but Franklin earned everyone's respect with his tenacious and courageous performance, and despite the point loss, many people, including Joshua, spoke highly of Franklin.
Before the game against Joshua, Franklin lost to Delian White on points in 2022, and that match was closer, Franklin also lost by points, but more fans thought he won, in short, Franklin went through two tough battles, especially with Joshua for the whole game, how many people can do it?
Franklin beat undefeated Isaac Gutierrez (17-0-1) on points last July, and now has a 22-2 professional record and 14 knockouts, and is currently ranked 29th in the overall world rankings.
Now, the 30-year-old Franklin is back in armor against 42-year-old American veteran Devin Vargas, and the two sides will face off in Detroit. Vargas was a standout in his amateur years, winning the Golden Glove Championship twice and captaining the U.S. boxing team at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
With a professional record of 22-10 and nine knockouts, Vargas was once the defeated opponent of "Big Bang" Zhang Zhilei, and lost to Zhang Zhilei in four rounds in 2020. In addition, Vargas also lost to Kevin Johnson, Dominic Brazel, Andy Ruiz Jr., Junior France, Charles Martin, and in the battle against Ruiz, Vargas only held on for 98 seconds before falling to the ground.
Vargas hasn't won since 2020, suffering four straight defeats and losing seven of the 10 fights they have lost by their opponents, and it looks like their jaws are still very fragile.
Franklin's choice of Vargas is not considered to have any difficulty, some media believe that if Franklin wins easily, it will not be of much benefit to him, on the contrary, if he loses in an upset, it will be a disastrous result, but does Vargels have the ability to cause an upset? I'm afraid not!
Franklin was a good fighter with plenty of room to stretch, a hard jaw, plenty of stamina, and a great technique. Franklin had hoped for a rematch with White, but it didn't work out, and it would be interesting to see if the two sides could have a rematch.
Although Franklin is not a standard heavy gunner, he should be able to take down Wagers quickly, or Franklin will spend a few more rounds with his opponent in order to remove rust, and either way, Franklin will win easily.
Although Franklin's overall world ranking is acceptable, with consecutive losses to White and Joshua and not picking strong opponents after that, the ranking of the four major boxing organizations is somewhat embarrassing, and only the WBO is currently ranked 12th, and the rest have all fallen out of the top 15.
If Franklin wants to return to the top of the list, he must face quality fighters, or he will continue to rise and fall. Objectively speaking, Franklin still has some strength, although he may not be able to reach the top of the world championship, but at least he will become a mainstream competitive force, but only if there is a real big fight, otherwise it will gradually decline.