Moses Itauma keeps steamrolling heavyweights, but this next one isn’t some easy night. Jermaine Franklin, the same Michigan tough guy who went the distance with Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, is rolling into Manchester on January 24 convinced he’s the first man who can drag the 20-year-old out of that early-round comfort zone and make him feel the real heavyweight grind.
Itauma flattened Whyte in a round in August in Riyadh. That’s the kind of result that gets people carried away. But Franklin isn’t impressed, and he’s been studying the kid with bad intentions. Speaking to Sky Sports, the American made it clear he’s not here to make up numbers.
“I try to see what he can do well and what he doesn’t do well, and then I use my experience to be able to trap him in place or capitalise when he makes those mistakes,” Franklin said.
He wants to drag Itauma into deep water, the part of a fight where a young heavyweight’s lungs and nerves start begging for answers. “When you’re going hard for five or six rounds and then you’ve got to go another five or six rounds, your body starts to wear down… it can play mental games on you.”
Can Itauma handle a real heavyweight grind?
Franklin didn’t stop there. He warned that the real shock for the young phenom comes when the leather starts flying late. “It’s not going to affect him too much until he starts getting hit… Once you don’t have the same energy, your body kind of reacts differently.”
Then came the line that’ll fuel this whole build-up: “I’m going to be the only tough opponent he’s actually had. You guys are going to see me beat up on him.”
For Itauma, this is the one that answers the question everyone’s asking: Is he real, or just running hot off early KOs? Franklin says he’s ready to expose him. The kid says he’s ready to steam through another name. Someone’s story gets broken on January 24.