The great heavyweight hope from the US Jermaine Franklin.

6 '2 235 and skilled. Mike Tyson 5' 10" David Hayes 6' 3" 224 Joe Louis 6' 2" 215 Joe Frazier 6' 0" 229 Larry Holmes 6' 3" 254 Rocky Marciano 5'11" 188 Ken Norton 6' 0" also everyone Jermaine Franklin Jr beat in the 2014 Golden Gloves was well over 6 '5" and better.

 

NO

 

And Franklin stopped him in Rd 8. Fountain's no contender - but he's OK. He went the full 8 against Lenroy Thomas last fall and took some rounds off him along the way - despite taking that fight on short notice. So it's a decent accomplishment for Franklin to have stopped him.

 

Here's my take on Jermaine Franklin...

He's good. He's probably good enough to land in the alphabet federation rankings at some point. He might even get chosen for a voluntary defense. He was overweight as an amateur - but he's been dropping weight as a pro...and it's good to see that.

But, no, I don't see him winning a major strap. He's 6' 1 with a 75-76 inch reach. Basically, he's just going to run out of inches against the very best guys. He's got decent pop and he's got really good hand speed - but fast hands alone don't level the playing field in HW any more. I haven't seen all that much recent footage of him - but what I've seen suggest he's not all that hard to hit and he doesn't seem like a boxer who turns his opponent around or lands angles. So that lack of size is going to keep him from reaching the very top.

 

Jermaine's got some skills - but he's not some Tyson Fury kind of boxing virtuoso.

And 6' 2" (and I think he's more like 6' 1") isn't what it used to be in the division - it's the new 5' 11.

When Jermaine won the GG - he beat Edwin Alvarez who is 6' 7" and Cassius Chaney who is 6' 6". But no way Craig Lewis (the guy he beat in the finals) is 6' 5" based on how he looked next to Junior Fa..

 

Looks like Jermaine took a wide UD over Craig Lewis last week. The articles I read suggested Lewis was in good form - so this is a nice victory for him.

Jermaine hasn't got a major promoter behind him, though, so I think he's going to have trouble getting step-up fights against quality opponents from here on out.

 

Too short to be dominant heavyweight

 

so you are calling him an 'American HW hope'?