Frampton-Quigg two-fight deal possible for Manchester and Belfast

By Boxing News - 07/27/2015 - Comments

quigg6666By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn has made an offer to IBF super bantamweight Carl Frampton to try and get the fight made between them. Hearn’s offer to Frampton and his management team is as follow: They have a two-fight deal with the first fight taking place in Quigg’s home city next November, and then the second fight being staged in Frampton’s home city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Frankly, it’s a better deal for Quigg than it is for Frampton, because with the first fight being staged in Manchester, it gives him the better chance of winning due to it being his home venue.

The fans will be overwhelmingly in supportive of Quigg,, and you would have to assume that if the fight goes to the cards, Quigg will have a better chance of winning the fight than Frampton.

A rematch won’t be nearly as interesting if Quigg wins the first fight, especially if it’s one-sided. There will be less interest from TV viewers than there was for the first fight, which means less pay-per-view buys. Yeah, Frampton’s fans will fill whatever arena he stages the fight in when it goes back to Belfast, but the damage would have already been done with Quigg winning the first fight.

“I’m happy to commit to a two-fight deal – one in November in Manchester, and one in Belfast in the spring or summer. That’s not a problem,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “If it’s a good fight a rematch will happen anyway. Both guys think they will win the fight and move on. But they’ll probably find that, if the first fight is entertaining which everybody knows it will be, then the biggest money in the division remains a rematch.”

If Quigg wins the first fight, then I see the interest in the second fight being nowhere. Frampton can get his fight in Belfast, but I don’t see the fight doing well at all when it comes to the views. It might even mess Frampton up mentally for a second fight because he could wind up psyched out the second time around and unable to fight as hard as he did in the first fight. If he knows he gave it his best and still lost the first fight, then Frampton could be mentally broken by the time he goes into the rematch in Belfast.

If I were Frampton’s management, I’d tell Hearn to go fly a kite and get lost. I wouldn’t agree for his wishy-washy two-fight deal unless the first fight was in Belfast and the second fight in Manchester. That’s the only way I’d agree to the deal because it doesn’t work out to Frampton’s favor to have the second fight in Belfast rather than the first one. Heck, they both should be in Belfast rather than Manchester because Frampton can sell out huge venues over there. But no way should it be the first fight in Manchester. That’s too good of a deal for Quigg and a lousy deal for Frampton.

“From my conversations with them, Frampton and his team won’t acknowledge that Scott’s stock has risen considerably. However, if they did, it’s a fight that could happen immediately,” Hearn said.

This is not a good deal for Frampton. I don’t see it working out between them if Hearn is going to try and railroad Frampton into agreeing to fight the first fight in Manchester. I’m not sure what cut of the financial pie will be, but that might be a nonstarter as well if Hearn is looking for a 50-50 deal.



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