by Scott Gilfoid: Commonwealth and IBF Inter-Continental super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (14-0, 9 KO’s) will be trying to show that he deserves to be ranked among the world class fighters when he takes on former IBF super bantamweight champion Steve Molitor (34-2, 12 KO’s) tonight at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Frampton, 25, sees a win over the fading Molitor as a way to make the other top fighters at 122 take notice of him.

Frampton said to Sky Sports News “I want to be propelled to world level and Steve Molitor certainly is world level. He’s rated number 9 by Ring Magazine. So If I win this fight everyone’s going to know about me, all the world champions are going to have to stand up and take notice.”

I think Frampton is seriously dreaming. If Frampton beats the 32-year-old Molitor all it will mean to the big names is that Frampton was able to beat a guy that has been showing signs of fading lately. Come on, Molitor was beaten soundly two fights ago by Takalani Ndlovu in a lopsided 12 round decision loss. This was a guy that Molitor previously easily beat a year earlier. So what happened? My guess is age is starting to show it’s ugly affects on Molitor.

If Frampton beats Molitor, he’ll still be little more than a fringe contender way, way down in the pack. There’s a lot of guys that I rate well above Molitor that would give Frampton all kinds of problems like Rico Ramos, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, Jeffrey Mathebula, Akifumi Shimoda, Takalani Ndlovu, and Abner Mares, to name just a small handful of guys that would be huge problems for Frampton. And, of course, top fighters like Nonito Donaire and Guillermo Rigondeaux would be way too much for the likes of Frampton.

I see Molitor as still having more than enough talent to whip Frampton tonight and make him look like an unskilled amateur. But if Frampton does win, you’ve got to look at the age and wear and tear on Molitor as being the reason.

In the co-main event Paul McCloskey (23-2, 12 KO’s) will be trying to turn his career around against light welterweight contender Manuel Perez (18-7-1, 4 KO’s) in a 12 round bout. These two fighters are going in different directions. Perez is on his way up and although he’ll never be a champion, he’ll still be a good gatekeeper type fighter. McCloskey, 33, is going downhill with two losses out of his last three fights. McCloskey should have a nice three-fight losing streak coming into this fight because his win over Breidis Prescott last year was a gift decision if I’ve ever seen one. Terrible scoring of the fight.

Perez will whip McCloskey like no tomorrow and likely get jobbed. That’s how I see it going down. I hope Perez plans on trying to knock McCloskey out because I don’t see the judges giving him a decision over McCloskey.

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The card took a major hit with the best fighter on the card Lee Selby pulling out of his fight against Martin Lindsay due to an illness. Selby was the only guy that I saw in this entire card that had any talent, and it’s pretty disappointing that he won’t be fighting Lindsay. With Selby off the card, Lindsay will be facing a still yet to be determined opponent. Don’t count on it being anyone good.

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Also on tonight’s card will be middleweight Eamonn O’Kane facing Chris Mafuta.