McGuigan: Frampton will beat Martinez

By Boxing News - 01/03/2013 - Comments

frampton545By Scott Gilfoid: Barry McGuigan, the adviser for unbeaten Commonwealth super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (15-0, 10 KO’s), is picking him to beat EBU super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (27-3, 19 KO’s) on February 9th at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

McGuigan said on his twitter “Respect what Sergio Martinez says, Kiko will be in great shape and he will be dangerous as long as the fight lasts, but Frampton will win.”

I hope McGuigan doesn’t get too upset when things don’t turn out like he’s planned because I think Frampton is going to take a beating in this fight and suffer his first loss of his career. This is too big of a jump up for the short 5’5” Framtpon, and he’s not ready for that big of a move up in class.

Kiko Martinez’s promoter Sergio Martinez said to the Dailymail.co.uk “Frampton is a very good fighter but he won’t be able to live with Kiko for a long fight.”

I certainly agree with that. Frampton is a good little fighter but he’s not going to be able to live with a class guy like Martinez for every long without hitting the deck and getting stopped.

It’s kind of a scary thought of seeing a green fighter Framtpon becoming the mandatory challenger for WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. Can you picture Frampton in the ring with Rigondeaux? That would be a slaughter. The same true for Frampton against WBO champion Nonito Donaire or WBC champion Abner Mares. Those guys are simply way, way too advanced for Frampton to contend with. But I wonder if McGuigan would choose to let Frampton fight for a word title against one of those guys even if he were to get the mandatory sport.

Would McGuigan actually let Frampton fight Rigondeaux, Mares or Donaire? The chances of success for Frampton would be minimal and the chances of him getting knocked out would be high. I think if Frampton gets the mandatory spot, he’ll wait them out until one of them moves up to featherweight, and then I see Frampton sliding on in to try and scoop up the vacated title.



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