Jermaine “The 989 Assassin” Franklin Jr. kept his hopes for another run at the heavyweight title alive by scoring a sixth-round TKO over a durable but under-powered Devin Vargas at Wayne State Fieldhouse in Detroit and live on DAZN.
Fighting in the 10-round main event of Salita Promotions’ “Big Time Boxing USA” event, Saginaw, Michigan’s Franklin (23-2, 15 KOs), the WBO #12-ranked heavyweight was forced to work harder than expected against a rugged Vargas (22-11, 9 KOs), fighting out of Toledo, Ohio, who came to win and landed his share of counter shots throughout the entertaining six rounds.
However, Franklin’s punches were far more powerful and impacted with a thud whenever he launched an assault. Vargas was down in round four from an accumulation of shots and again from the same in round six. He capitulated after the second knockdown and elected not to come out for round seven.
The official verdict was a TKO for Franklin at 0:00 of the seventh round.
“It was a great fight for me, but I felt like I made it harder than it needed to be,” admitted Franklin, post-fight. “I was trying too hard to land power shots. I’m not going to lie. Once I landed the first power punch, I just got happy. I was trying to calm down. It looked like I was letting him get off, but I had to calm down to refocus. I got outside my game plan, but I still got the job done.”
Franklin says he feels his work rate and stamina are what make him a threat to any top heavyweight. “I’m more of a volume punching heavyweight,” he explained. “There are only a couple of us. My greatest aspect is that a lot of guys have the strength early, but don’t have it later on. If I can outpunch you and you can’t match my output, you will slow down and slow down. I want to stay as busy as possible. I want to fight four times a year if I can. I’m not ducking no smoke. If the business makes sense, I’m ready to go.”
“I believe Jermaine is rated in the WBO, so Joseph Parker is the WBO Heavyweight World Champion,” asserted Franklin’s promoter, Dmitriy Salita. “I think it’d be a great fight. Both guys fought Dillian Whyte, and both guys fought Anthony Joshua. That’s the fight we’d like to go for.”
Salita added that if Franklin doesn’t get a big phone call right away, he can still accommodate his heavyweight in the meantime. “We’ve been having discussions with different players in the boxing business to get Jermaine a significant fight. I believe it’s a matter of time and if he doesn’t’ get it, we’ll keep him busy on Big Time Boxing USA. Jermaine is still a top American heavyweight. He showed his skills tonight. He’s explosive, young, and powerful. My respect to Devin Vargas for taking a licking and keep on ticking. What a fighter!”
