MANCHESTER, England — From the moment his fight with Moses Itauma was announced, Jermaine Franklin has had to sit and listen to people condescendingly tell him that he is the ideal opponent to provide the 20-year-old with the type of invaluable rounds that will help him along his smooth path to the heavyweight world title.

Publicly at least, nobody seems to be giving the 32-year-old Michigan native a serious chance of derailing The Ring’s No. 9 heavyweight when they meet at Manchester’s cavernous Co-op Live Arena on January 24 exclusively on DAZN.

The relaxed, knowledgable Franklin couldn’t care less.

“I'll put it like this,” Franklin (24-2, 15 KOs) told The Ring at Monday’s launch press conference, “most of my career I've been on the B-side. So even when I started as a pro I was in everybody's backyards beating them up. This has been a story my whole career. I've come here to get knocked out or I've come here to get beat up.

"It's just words at this point.”

Franklin is no stranger to British rings. In November 2022, he lost a 12-round majority decision to Dillian Whyte in London. The following April, he returned to give two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua a solid workout before losing a unanimous decision.

Franklin has sparred some of the world’s top heavyweights, and the Joshua fight in particular gave him invaluable first-hand experience of what it is like to share the ring with a top-tier operator.

Franklin understands the boxing business. He has been impressed with what he has seen of Itauma (13-0, 11 KOs) but thinks that anointing him as a surefire future champion is premature.

“That's boxing. In any sport, you always project it to be the next or you always compare it to somebody else so I would say it's normal,” he said.

“It is a little bit slighted, but it's normal. It happens.”

Saudi Arabia’s dramatic entrance into the sport and a series of exciting, unpredictable fights have turned the heavyweight division into the land of opportunity.

Management issues have held Franklin back and prevented him from getting involved in the shake-up.

In September, he was finally given a chance and he took full advantage, scoring a career-best victory over previously undefeated Kazakh, Ivan Dychko, on the undercard of the undisputed super middleweight title fight between Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez.

Franklin still has plenty of time to make an impact and hasn’t allowed out-of-the-ring difficulties to sap his ambition or enthusiasm for the sport.

“It is frustrating, but I try not to think too much about it. I was raised in Christianity so I know a lot of us, our journeys are very different,” he said.

“My journey might not be the same journey as somebody else's, so I try not to think too much about it or try not to get jealous or frustrated because I might have taken a longer route, but I still got there.”