MARCHING ON TO GLORY: CARL FRAMPTON
by Eliot Stott
In what will be the 30th fight of his career, Carl Frampton will aim to become the latest member of the famous ‘Triple Champion’ club which includes former foes Nonito Donaire & Leo Santa Cruz as well as various other Boxing greats.
As things stand, it looks like Frampton will be able to try and achieve that task in his home city of Belfast against WBO Super Featherweight champion Jamel Herring.
Herring who was interviewed by ESBR recently will be making the 2nd defence of his title since becoming world champion 10 months ago, defeating former champ Masayuki Ito before outpointing the previously undefeated Lamont Roach.
Now in his 8th year as a professional, Herring’s current record stands at 21-2 with his two losses coming against former world champ Denis Shafikov via a stoppage in the final round & a points defeat against countryman Ladarius Miller who currently holds a record of 21-1.
In what will be his third main event in a row, Herring like many American fighters will be leaving the US for the first time as a professional, having fought at the London 2012 Olympics only to become unstuck by amateur great Daniyar Yeleussinov.
Whilst Herring will be fighting in his third world title fight, Frampton will be fighting in his eighth and as stated before, in his third different weight division.
Fighting in Belfast in his first world title fight back in 2014, Frampton defeated Kiko Martinez for the second time via a wide points decision to capture the IBF Super-Bantamweight world title before a defense against American Chris Avalos a few months later.
In what must go down as one of the best years of a British fighter’s career, Frampton firstly defeated bitter rival, Scott Quigg, in what wasn’t a classic, was a long-awaited grudge match that was soundly put to bed by Frampton who controlled the contest.
Despite the demand for a fight against then P4P star Guillermo Rigondeaux, Frampton instead chose to move up in weight to fight then-undefeated Leo Santa Cruz in what was a 32 – 0 vs 22 – 0 match-up.
In what was a strong FOTY candidate, Frampton dethroned Santa Cruz for the WBA Featherweight Title with two out of the three judges scoring the fight in Frampton’s favour.
An immediate rematch followed in which Frampton wasn’t successful. Making his Las Vegas debut, Santa Cruz edged the contest by a similar distance to which Frampton edged the first. Although a trilogy fight was discussed immediately, nothing has come to fruition over three years on from the last fight.
Frampton was to wait almost two years to fight for world honours again, this time against another domestic competitor in Josh Warrington back in Manchester.
Unlike the Quigg fight, Frampton didn’t spend most of the fight in control and was rocked early in the fight by Warrington who was making the first defence of his title.
However, despite having his moments towards the end of the fight Frampton ended up on the wrong end of the judges’ scorecards in a fight that many had him winning prior to the first bell.
Frampton’s Next Steps
With both fighters aged 33 & 34 respectively, you’d think that there would only be ‘big fights only’ attitude moving forward.
In regards to Frampton’s future options, the obvious big fight to make next could be a trilogy fight against Leo Santa Cruz. As previously mentioned, there have been discussions over a trilogy between the two but perhaps late 2020 will be the correct time for the 3rd fight to be made with both fighters holding world titles.
If for whatever reason the Santa Cruz fight can’t be made, tricky unification fights against Miguel Berchelt (37-1) & Joseph Diaz (31-1) may be possibilities.
A chance to move back down in weight could be a possibility for Frampton as well. Big fights against Gary Russell Jnr and Shakur Stevenson could be very tempting as well as a rematch against Josh Warrington who himself is looking to unify in 2020.
Although unlikely to happen in 2020, harsh words have been said between Frampton and world title challenger Kid Galahad over the last couple of years meaning a classic domestic grudge match between the two shouldn’t be ruled out in the future.
On the other hand, a loss in this fight could see the end of Carl Frampton’s glossy career. In what would be the second loss out of three fights, Frampton will be likely to follow bitter rival Scott Quigg out the retirement door if he isn’t able to get past Jamel ‘Semper Fi’ Herring.
We are obviously in times of uncertainty, not just regarding sport, but regarding the health and welfare of everybody that the coronavirus has the potential to affect. The reality is that lives have already been lost, the hope is that people will, at some point be able to return to doing what they love once it is safe to do so.
Scheduled fights will no doubt be cancelled for the foreseeable future whilst the ramifications of what is happening to continue.
We hope to see these sportsmen and sportswomen on our screens again soon, providing the entertainment we as boxing fans regularly take for granted.
This article is part of ESBR’s ‘Marching on’ series. For the rest of the series, head to www.esbrboxing.com