By Marcus Richardson: Former 4 division world champion Nonito Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) will be traveling to face Carl Frampton on April 7 at THE SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. #2 WBC, #3 IBF, #3, #7 WBO featherweight contender Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs) is hoping Donaire is just a warm-up level opponent and not a real threat to beating him.
Frampton has big plans of fighting for a world title in 2018 against IBF lightweight champion Lee Selby. That’s a guy that is perfect for Frampton, who has been struggling in many of his recent fights against big punchers Horacio Garcia, Leo Santa Cruz, Scott Quigg and Alejandro Gonzalez Jr.
Frampton, 30, won’t be getting a break for this fight because Donaire is every bit a puncher than Quigg, Garcia, Gonzalez Jr. and Santa Cruz. There’s not much separates those fighters from each other in terms of power. Frampton was clearly bothered by all of those fighters’ punching power, as he was worn down by each of them.
”On 7 April we’ll be in Belfast where Carl Frampton will be fighting Donaire. It’s a real cracking fight, a good fight for him and we’ll be giving further details in the New Year,” said Frampton’s promoter Frank Warren.
The Frampton vs. Donaire fight is still pretty far off. It’s surprising that a fight of that nature is already being announced officially, because there’s a lot of time before they face each other in April.
This will be Frampton’s second fight with Warren since he left Barry McGuigan’s Cyclone Promotions. Frampton’s first fight with Warren was against Horacio Garcia on November 18.
Frampton won the fight by a 10 round unanimous decision, but the scores were a lot wider than the fight that took place. It was a close fight, but you wouldn’t think that by looking at the scores handed down by the judges that worked the fight. They had Frampton winning by fairly wide scores.
Donaire has captured world titles at 112, 118, 122 and 126 lb. divisions. However, Donaire is getting up there in age at 35, and he’s fighting in a division that he’s previously been exposed at by Nicholas Walters three years ago in a 6th round knockout in 2014. Donaire moved back down to the 122 lb. division after that loss, and he quickly captured a world title in winning the WBO super bantamweight title in beating Cesar Juarez in December 2015. Donaire lost the WBO title last year in November to Jessie Magdaleno by a 12 round decision. Donaire moved back up to featherweight in his last fight and beat Ruben Garcia Hernandez by a 10 round decision on September 23. Donaire is past his prime, but the punching power remains. Donaire will have a punchers’ chance to beat Frampton on April 7. If Donaire catches Frampton with something big, he could take him out. Horacio Garcia had Frampton off his feet, and he’s not nearly the puncher Donaire is.
Frampton was beaten for the first time earlier this year in a 12 round decision loss to Leo Santa Cruz. Frampton was out of the ring for 10 months after that defeat until coming back last November to narrowly beat Horacio Garcia.