Hearn wants Frampton back at the Odyssey Arena on May 11th

By Boxing News - 02/11/2013 - Comments

frampton21By Sean McDaniel: EBU super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (16-0, 11 KO’s) won’t get much time to rest up after his 9th round TKO win over Kiko Martinez last Saturday night. Frampton’s promoter Eddie Hearn is going to keep him busy in 2013, and has plans on having him back at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on May 11th. He drew a huge crowd for the Martinez fight, and it’s possible he’ll do that again if Hearn can find him a quality fighter.

Hearn wants Frampton to go after the IBF belt. It’s currently vacant but it won’t be after Saturday when Alejandro Lopez faces Jhonatan Romero for the title at the Auditorio Municipal, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Both of those guys are vulnerable fighters, and Hearn sees what many fans see as a potential easy belt for Frampton to pick up without much risk.

If Frampton can get that title, then Hearn could do one of a number of things. He could use that to get bargaining room for a unification bout against either WBA champ Guillermo Rigondeaux or WBO champion Nonito Donaire. Hearn could also avoid those two, and steer Frampton to go after the eventual WBC 122 lb. champion.

Victor Terrazaz will be fighting Cristian Mijares for the title soon. Mijares is a pretty beatable older fighter, but Terrazaz would be more of a problem for Frampton because he can fight, and he’s got power.

Frampton didn’t look comfortable with the pressure that Kiko Martinez was putting on him last Saturday. Martinez is a pretty primitive fighter, yet he was able to put Frampton on the run for much of the fight. Frampton did seem to get a little more comfortable from the 6th round on, but he was still nervous and he didn’t look as powerful as Martinez.

Frampton was able to land shots when Martinez was in range without getting hit too much, but a big reason for that was because Martinez wasn’t throwing combinations. He was just loading up with single power shots.

Frampton has a lot of promise but he’s going to have to show a lot more if he faces the better fighters. He can beat Romero and Lopez, but he doesn’t look like he’s in the same league as Rigondeaux and Donaire, and I get the feeling that Hearn knows this as well because he’s not positioning Frampton to face either of them.

I get the sense that Hearn will be comfortable just having Frampton as the IBF champion, and that he’d just use the title belt as a prop to help bring in big crowds and make money on Sky.

Hearn won’t have to put Frampton in any dangerous fights for him to pay off by selling out the Odyssey each time he fights, and making good money defending the title against the contenders.