By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for Commonwealth and IBF Inter-Continental super bantamweight super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (15-0, 10 KO’s) wants to put the 25-year-old Frampton in with one of the following fighters for his next fight in January: 37-year-old Rafael Marquez, former WBA World super bantamweight champion Rico Ramos or former IBF super bantamweight champion Jeffrey Mathebula.

If Hearn can get one of those fighters for Frampton, then this fight will be on the same card as former EBU light welterweight champion Paul McCloskey’s next fight in January.

The original plan was to match Frampton with Kiko Martinez. However, Hearn sees that fight as too risky, as Martinez might pull out due to an injury and Hearn doesn’t want to take that chance.

Hearn said to the BBC Sport “Marquez, Ramos, and Mathebula are all top five guys and Id like to see Carl fighting one of those guys and then start thinking about a world title.”

Hearn feels confident that he can get lure Mathebula, Marquez or Ramos over to Ireland to fight Frampton in his home country by offering them good money. Hearn notes that there isn’t a lot of money for fighters in the super bantamweight division, and he feels he can get get one of those guys by giving them a big enough offer to come over.

Those guys are all flawed one way or another. A young Rafael Marquez would likely easily beat Frampton. However, Marquez is 37 now and WAY, WAY past his best. He’s been beaten by Juan Manuel Lopez and Toshiaki Nishioka in the last two years, and doesn’t look like the same fighter he once was. Marquez had four fights with the hard hitting Israel Vazquez, and three of them were wars that seemed to take a lot of out Marquez.

For Frampton to beat him now it’s not going to mean a whole lot, but I understand the principal behind why Hearn would want to make this fight. He’d be looking to add a well known scalp to Frampton’s resume so that the casual boxing fans, the ones that know who Marquez is in the U.S, would all of a sudden take notice to Frampton. Casual boxing fans wouldn’t likely understand how far off Marquez’s game he is at this point in his career and might think that Frampton is better than he is if he can beat Marquez. At any rate, I don’t see Hearn being able to get Martinez. I think he won’t want to fight Frampton in Ireland.

Mathebula is definitely someone that Hearn can get for Frampton, if they throw enough money at him to fly over to Ireland for the fight. The same goes for Ramos. Mathebula seems like the tougher fighter and he could give Frampton all kinds of problems with his height and reach. Mathebula gave WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire all kinds of problems in losing to him by a 12 round decision last July. I think Mathebula is good enough to possibly beat Frampton, although I don’t think Mathebula would actually be given the decision over Frampton in Ireland. I can’t see that happening.