Promoter Eddie Hearn explains Anthony Joshua ticket sale struggles for Jermaine Franklin fight

It seems suffering successive losses in his last two fights has seen Anthony Joshua’s popularity drastically drop.

The 2012 Olympic gold medallist has fought twice in the last two years, losing both times against champion Oleksandr Usyk, and this has left him without any world titles in the heavyweight division.

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Hoping to bounce back from these defeats, Joshua will take on America’s Jermaine Franklin on April 1, who is best known for his recent controversial loss against former AJ foe, Dillian Whyte.

The fight is set to take place at the O2 Arena in London, which has a capacity of 20,000, and despite the fight being less than a month away, there are still thousands of unsold tickets.

This comes as a surprise given that earlier in Joshua’s career he sold out Wembley Stadium twice with a capacity of 90,000 and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff twice with a capacity of 74,500.

Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, was asked about this in an interview with ESBR Boxing and he said: “He’s coming off two defeats, so of course you’re not going to be the same size commercially as you were when you beat Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000.

“But he’s a great fighter, he’s one of the best heavyweights in the world. I feel like he can still be the best heavyweight in the world.

“And it’s difficult times as well, yeah we’ve sold 14,000 tickets at the O2, we’ve got a couple of thousand left – which will all go.

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“The fighters get their tickets this week as well, so there’s not going to be many left.

“But he needs to make a statement and he needs to get people excited about Anthony Joshua again.

“We all love him, the country loves him, but do they believe in him as a top heavyweight, April 1 we will see.”

And it appears Joshua is working hard under new trainer, Derrick James, to make sure he makes a statement against Franklin, as he recently posted his Rocky IV style training methods on Instagram, chopping down trees, alongside the caption: “Back to basics.”

This is a huge fight for Joshua’s career and another defeat would see his stock fall to an all-time low.