By Scott Gilfoid: #2 IBF Carl Frampton (18-0, 13 KO’s) thinks his previous win over IBF super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (31-4, 23 KO’s) from last year has knocked the confidence out of the 28-year-old Spaniard as they head into their rematch on September 6th at the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Frampton, 27, stopped Martinez in the 9th round after catching him with a shot he didn’t see in their fight in February of last year. Martinez was chasing Frampton around the ring to try and force him to fight, because Frampton had stopped going toe-to-toe with him early on after getting nailed with some massive head shots in the fight.
For some reason Martinez agreed to give Frampton the hometown advantage for the rematch despite him being the champion. Hopefully, this doesn’t come back to bite Martinez on the backside when/if the fight goes the full distance. Martinez will need to come into this fight with a clear view of what he’s likely up against by choosing to fight in Frampton’s home city of Belfast.
Frampton figures that Martinez can’t be cocky for this fight due to his loss to him last year. But Martinez has a good reason to like his chances because he was the one that was taking the fight to Frampton last year, and he clearly had the 5’5” fighter on the run at the time of the stoppage.
Frampton said to the Belfasttelgraph.co.uk, “I hope it’s fiery. He has been saying a lot on Twitter, but let’s see if he is like that when he comes over because he has been tamed. He’s already been knocked out, so he can’t be too brash because he will look foolish. There will be no problem with me getting motivated as there is a world title on the line.”
Frampton sounds like he’s ready to brawl with Kiko in this fight. Frankly, I’d be very, very surprised if Frampton chooses to do this, because Kiko was the stronger puncher of the two the last time they fought each other, and I don’t expect that to change for this fight.
The question that many boxing fans want to know is when will Frampton step it up to fight WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux? The Cuban fighter is very interested in fighting Frampton, but he’s not seen any movement from Frampton to take the fight. It would be a pity if Frampton waits until the 33-year-old Rigondeaux is old and past it by the time he faces him, because then the hardcore boxing fans will never give him any credit if he were to beat him.
Casual boxing fans won’t likely know much about Rigondeaux, so they won’t have a strong opinion about the fight. But if Frampton doesn’t feel that he’s ready to fight Rigondeaux at 27, then when will he be? I mean, at 27, Frampton should be in his prime of his career, and it’s pointless to be waiting on that fight unless he’s waiting Rigondeaux out until he’s old enough for him to beat him.
Comments are closed.