The 32-year-old from Saginaw, Michigan is now nearing the end of his second long stint in the Bedfordshire town as he prepares to face Moses Itauma in their rearranged heavyweight clash on March 28, live on DAZN.

Franklin (24-2, 15 KOs) was just 11 days out from the initial date of January 31 when he got the call to say Itauma had suffered an injury and that the fight would be postponed. Now, three months on, Franklin is fully prepared again.

“We was deep in camp when I got the call,” he tells The Ring. “I was pretty close to being done.

“So the situation annoyed me because I’d spent money to be out here for that camp. But this is boxing and stuff like this happens all the time, you’ve just got to be prepared.”

On hearing the news, Franklin flew back to his home in Michigan for a short break before essentially restarting his camp in his surprising new adopted home town, around 30 miles north of central London.

“We didn’t want too much down time,” he says. “But it was important to have a quick break so we didn’t just feel like we rolled straight back in again.

“I had a little bit of down time and went back home for a while but you don’t want too much time off at that point. You want to keep your body physically strong and ready. So I had like a week off at most and then we were right back at it.

“So far I’ve been back in Luton for about a month and a half. We were already here for the first fight too so I’ve been here a long time in total.”

While few touring heavyweights have ever set foot in Luton, much less based a training camp there, Franklin’s logic is solid given he has been using Don Charles’ gym for sparring. That facility sits on a farm in Borehamwood and takes only 30 minutes to access by car. It means Franklin is now a regular in the gym, which also houses Daniel Dubois.

Today Franklin sits on the side of the gym’s ring, while a selection of left-handed southpaws prepare themselves for an afternoon session. They were here for the first camp and were quick to respond once Franklin returned.

“I told them when I left I’d need them again soon,” he says. “So everyone was ready for that. It’s not easy finding lefties period. So to be out here and find a nice amount of them was great for me.

“Now it kind of feels like I’ve done two camps so I’m definitely ready and sharp. The only downside was slowing down on sparring when I went back home for a bit. But now we are back it’s about putting those finishing touches on.

“It is difficult though because after all that work through camp you’ve brought yourself to the peak and you’re kind of ready to be lazy again. You want to fight and then you can be lazy again. But this is my job so I can’t complain, I’ve got to do it.”

Charles has been happy to facilitate Franklin and his team, but has not been involved in the training process, with Jessie Addison still the heavyweight’s head trainer. The team base themselves out of an Airbnb in Luton and clearly have a soft spot for the place.

“Look I just try to stay wherever is close to where I’m training at,” he says. “We’ve got an Airbnb and it’s decent.

“When I say I'm staying in Luton some people are surprised and tell me it’s not great. But these people are crazy, I’m so confused, I’ll tell them they must not have been to America much. Luton's quite good compared to a lot of places back home.

“But we just keep ourselves to ourselves, the most we do is probably go down to Asda and buy a few groceries. When I’m in camp I really don’t do too much.

“We do our sparring here at Don’s gym so that’s probably three or four times a week. Then there’s just a little active gym in Luton that we go to with regular people training in there. Some of them have recognised me and have approached me about the fight but for the most part we just keep our head down and get the work done. It’s fine by me.”

The postponement means Franklin, a 10/1 outsider, will now face Itauma at the start of a huge few weeks for the division. Their fight takes place in Manchester on March 28 before Derek Chisora and Deontay Wilder collide at London’s O2 Arena on April 4. Then, seven days later, Tyson Fury returns against Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

A Franklin win will send a shockwave through the whole division and he cannot wait to watch the impact.

“The postponement really did land perfectly for me," he said. "Also, I’m a fan of boxing so I get to fight and then sit back and see how the rest of it plays out.”