Jermaine Franklin Covid 19 Positive-Off Ring City Thursday Main Event

A planned unbeaten Heavyweight prospect showdown was to have been the Ring City USA main event Thursday night from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY. However, Michigan’s Jermaine Franklin is now off the show due to testing positive for Covid 19.

Boxing insider, Dan Rafael reported first for Boxingscene.com that not only was Franklin’s initial test positive, but a follow up test confirmed his situation for Thursday,

Sources: Heavyweight Jermaine Franklin, positive for Covid-19, is out of Thursday’s ⁦@ringcityusa⁩ card vs. Stephan Shaw; change to opener also. My ⁦@boxingscene⁩ story. #boxing ⁦@BCampbell⁩ ⁦@BobPapa_NFL⁩ ⁦@ShowtimeShawnP⁩ https://t.co/1XOQPqBKQU

— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) April 19, 2021

The 27 year old Franklin (20-0, 13 KOs) is out of Saginaw, Michigan, was to have battled Stephan Shaw (14-0, 10 KOs), from St. Louis, in a bout with unbeaten rising American Heavyweights both looking to move up in the rankings.

Rafael further reported,

Organizers are seeking a late replacement to face Shaw but even if an acceptable opponent is not found on such notice the card will still go ahead as planned, sources said. 

If a new opponent is not found to face Shaw, the co-feature will move up to the main event position. That fight will see WBA women’s featherweight world titlist Jelena Mrjdenovich (41-10-2, 19 KOs), 38, of Edmonton, Canada, defend her belt against southpaw Erika Cruz Hernandez (12-1-0, 3 KOs), 30, of Mexico, in the co-feature.

… The card will be the first professional boxing show held at the U.S. Military Academy, which is well known for its amateur program. It will also be the first boxing event held in New York since heavyweight Robert Helenius upset Adam Kownacki in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on March 7, 2020 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Franklin was last in action in October of 2019, when he defeated Pavel Sour by unanimous 10 round decision on Showtime Boxing. Franklin also has a previous decision win over veteran Heavyweight journeyman Rydell Booker in April of that year.

As for Shaw, he was last in action with a decision over Ukranian Lyubomyr Pinchuk in Los Angeles in December of last year.