Fransonet grew up in Lancaster, PA, a place more known for its large Amish population riding through town on horse and buggy than for its sports stars. He was one of three children to a father who had a reputation for being a fighter. Tough but fair is how Jinji describes his dad, “My father was the type that if he was working and you were standing around with your hands in your pockets, you were done. He always wanted us to work harder than anyone else, especially when it came to boxing.”
Jinji started his boxing journey going to the gym a few times a week, hitting the heavy bag, working a little cardio but mostly goofing off, not really taking it seriously. But, as his natural abilities began to take over so did his love for the sport. He began training harder and longer, eventually setting his sights on turning professional. At 19, his trainer said he was ready and the match was made. Jinji was scheduled for his first fight as a professional boxer.
Unfortunately, as they say, life is what happens when you’re off making plans. One late night, two-weeks before his debut, a friend of his showed up at Jinji’s door looking for a sympathetic ear to bend. Jinji was much younger than his friend but he had become a sort of soundboard for the man, helping him through various dark times in his life. It had been another tough night for the man and so the two got into Jinji’s car and set out on their typical route around town for some deep and discovering conversation. Then the crash.
The next thing Jinji remembers is waking up to the smell of blood and grinded metal all mixing together in the air. Faint sounds of paramedics using the jaws of life to rip open the car like a can opener between screams from his family now on the scene. He eventually succumbed to the pain and drifted off not waking up until hours later in the hospital.
When he awoke Jinji was confronted with harsh realities that would break even the strongest of people. “I remember waking up tubes coming out of everywhere, casts, machines I’ve never seen before and I couldn’t feel my leg. I pulled back the sheet and was confronted with my worst fears.” Jinji had lost so much so quickly. His left leg amputated above the knee, his right leg fractured in 19 different places, more cuts and lacerations than he could count and on top of all this, his friend in the passenger seat had passed away from internal injuries. He quickly looked around the room for a familiar face, his father’s. “I remember looking around the room trying to find my dad. We locked eyes and I just started crying. I asked, ‘Why? Why did this happen?’” As his father had done through tough times when Jinji was a child, he replied, “What you crying for? Nothing happened, you know what it’s like to push hard through obstacles and this is just another obstacle that you will get through.”
At first boxing was far from his mind. Doctors had told Jinji that he would never walk again let alone box. “The fear of possibly never holding and running with my kids again was overwhelming. Maybe I couldn’t be the father, the son, the friend, the husband that I always wanted to be.” Getting back was going to be tough but as he always had done before Jinji was ready to accept the challenge.
