Jermaine Franklin and Otto Wallin; Losing Can Be Winning, or Not

Jermaine Franklin and Otto Wallin have identical records (21-1, 14 KOs) and share the same promoter. Various reports say that Franklin (pictured) will command an $800,000 purse for his next assignment. Wallin, who likely would be favored if paired against Franklin, will be fighting for peanuts.

Their contrasting situations inform us that in their odd sport a defeat in which a boxer exceeds expectations can have divergent outcomes. Losing to Dillian Whyte was a blessing for Jermaine Franklin; losing to Tyson Fury was something of a curse for Otto Wallin.

Franklin, who hails from Saginaw, Michigan, resurrected his flagging career with a credible performance against Dillian Whyte on Nov. 26 at Wembley Arena in London. Whyte got the nod, winning a 12-round majority decision, but Franklin thought he was robbed and more than a few felt the same way.

Franklin had fallen off the radar screen after out-pointing Czechoslovakian slug Pavel Sour in October of 2019. He missed all of 2020 and 2021 while making ends meet working 12-hour shifts in a plant that manufactured roofing materials. A mild case of COVID harpooned his April 2021 match with Stephan Shaw, delaying his return to the ring. He resurfaced in May of last year with a fifth-round stoppage of grubby, 46-year-old Rodney Moore who had lost 19 of his last 22 fights.

Franklin vs. Moore played out at a union hall in Gary, Indiana. If reports are accurate, when the Michigander next steps into the ring it will be against former WBA/WBC/IBF world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua who remains a big star in England despite losing three of his last five fights.

When Joshua fights on UK soil, it’s usually in a big outdoor stadium. Five of his last six fights in his home country were staged outdoors in front of vast gatherings including an SRO crowd of 66,267 for his most recent UK fight, his first meeting with Oleksandr Usyk.

British sports journalist Joe Coleman captured the scene: “From the very second I entered [Tottenham Hotspur Stadium] there was a current of electricity which crackled…chills ran through my spine and hairs stood to attention as the entirety of the baying crowd belted out Neil Diamond’s cult classic ‘Sweet Caroline.’”

Imagine that. One fight removed from fighting before a few hundred at a union hall in one of America’s poorest cities, Jermaine Franklin may find himself competing before a great multitude in England. Such is boxing.

Wallin

Otto Wallin

Otto Wallin is slated to fight a week from tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 27) in Windham, New Hampshire, at a banquet hall accustomed to hosting weddings and high school proms. In the opposite corner will be Heloman Olguin, a paunchy, 39-year-old leather-pusher from Utah with a 9-4-1 record, a boxer who was recently knocked out in the first round by professional loser Terrell Jamal Woods.

It’s an 8-rounder that almost assuredly will not go the full distance. The man who gave Tyson Fury a rough tussle is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Wallin fought Tyson Fury on Sept. 4, 2019 in Las Vegas. Three months earlier, Fury had annihilated Tom Schwarz, a previously undefeated German, knocking him out in the second round and the general feeling was that the Gypsy King would dismiss Wallin just as quick. But to the contrary, the unheralded Swede was still standing at the final bell.

Fury suffered a bad gash over his right eye in round three. It bled profusely and ultimately required 47 stitches. However, Wallin had many good moments aside from the punch that opened the wound. In fact, had this been a contest of lesser import, or if the situation had been reversed and it had been the “B-side” fighter who was the aggrieved party, the ring doctor would have almost certainly commanded the ref to stop it.

As it was, Otto Wallin did not win by TKO but lost a unanimous decision, a verdict that, although fair, redounded well to the loser who vastly exceeded expectations.

Wallin is 4-0 since that setback, but in none of these four fights was he well-compensated. His best win was a clear decision in a 12-round match with former world title challenger Dominic Breazeale, but that contest, rather than topping the marquee, played second fiddle to David Benavidez vs Roamer Alexis Angulo. Wallin’s last two opponents were Kamil Sokolowski, who was 11-24-2 going in, and 40-year-old gatekeeper Rydell Booker.

Wallin out-pointed Sokolowski in an 8-round contest that was buried on a show in Cardiff, Wales. He won a lopsided decision over Booker on a show held at a rec center in Dearborn, Michigan.

Wallin has been angling for a fight with Anthony Joshua, but the Swede is a southpaw and Joshua wants no part of another lefty at this juncture of his career after losing back-to-back fights with Usyk. Hence, it is promoter Dmitriy Salita’s other heavyweight, Jermaine Franklin, who will cash in big, or so we have read.

Perhaps Wallin’s day will come. After his stay-busy fight in New Hampshire, he may fight Dillian Whyte and, assuming he gets over this hump, that could be the conduit to a very rich payday. But in the meantime, Wallin, who turns 33 this year, isn’t getting any younger. Forty-four months have elapsed since he threw a scare into Tyson Fury and he has almost nothing to show for it.

In boxing, sometimes you can’t win for losing.

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