By Scott Gilfoid: EBU super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez and challenger Carl Frampton got into a heated exchange during today’s weigh-in in Belfast, Northern Ireland. After both fighters made the 122 pound weigh-in limit, Martinez, 26, walked up on Frampton and started jawing while waving a flag. It looked pretty contrived to me.

Frampton and his team fired back some words that were impossible to make out through the noise of the large crowd in attendance. Finally, Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn stepped in and broke up the action, such as it was.

Hearn, who towered over both 5’5” fighters, was able to get them to back off almost on cue. It got the impression that it was little more than a pre-planned event because it looked too theatrical to me, and backed off too quickly when Hearn stepped forward.

Usually when you have too guys that are genuinely heated, they push past the promoters and really go for each other, but not in this case. Frampton and Martinez looked as docile as two lambs when Hearn stepped in between them.

Frampton is the favorite to beat Martinez, but you really can’t tell for sure who will win this fight because Frampton looked mighty uncomfortable last year in May when he faced a power puncher in Raul Hirales.

As soon as he started getting tagged by Hirales, who clearly had the better power, Frampton ran for the remainder of the fight. I rate Martinez as a better puncher as Hirales, so I think we could see a possible upset tomorrow night. At the very least, Frampton will likely fight like he did against Hirales by running all around the ring to avoid getting hit.

The Frampton-Martinez fight will take place at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland on Saturday night, and it’s reportedly already sold out.

The undercard has some decent fights with middleweight Andy Lee facing Anthony Fitzgerald, featherweight Lee Selby battling Martin Lindsay, and former EBU middleweight champion Grzegorz Proksa taking on Norbert Szekeres.

Here are the other fights on the card:

Jamie Conlan vs. Mike Robinson
Eamonn O’Kane vs. Gary Boulden
Daniel McShane vs. Pavels Senkovs
Callum Smith vs. Tommy Tolan
Martin Rogan vs. Ladislav Kovarik