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It’s been a while since a pair of unbeaten American prospects duked it out, and now it’ll be even longer. Mike Coppinger, confirming an earlier report from Dan Rafael, claims that Jermaine Franklin is out of his Thursday Ring City USA main event against Stephan Shaw due to COVID.
Per Coppinger, the show is still on and they are searching for a replacement opponent for Shaw (14-0, 10 KO). The undercard notably features Jelena Mrdjenovich’s WBA featherweight title defense against Erika Cruz Hernandez and the latest from prospects Christian Mbili and Jalan Walker.
Franklin (20-0, 13 KO) hasn’t fought since an October 2019 decision victory over Pavel Sour. He’d previously scored a questionable victory over Jerry Forrest that seemingly put the kibosh on any potential title aspirations.
If there’s any promotion that doesn’t deserve to see things fall apart, it’s Ring City, which has been a reliable source of quality matchmaking and equally quality action. Here’s hoping they can salvage this.