By Scott Gilfoid: Newly crowned EBU super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (16-0, 11 KO’s) will be back in the ring on May 11th, says his promoter Eddie Hearn, but it probably won’t be against interim WBA super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg because Hearn doesn’t appear all that interested in making that fight based on the comments he made after Frampton’s 9th round TKO win over Kiko Martinez (27-4, 19 KO’s) last Saturday night at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Hearn said “The kid [Frampton] is a world beater. He’s going right to the top. We’re already looking at May 11th to be back here. The IBF title; I’d say we’re going to get a shot [at some point in the future], and even the WBC title. We want world titles. He’s the superstar of the super bantamweight division.
Everyone’s talking about him on Sky, time and time again. [On] May 11th to be back potentially in the Odyssey. It [Frampton vs. Quigg] can be made, but this is the superstar of the super bantamweight division right now. He sells out arenas; he’s boxing on Sky time and time again. Scott Quigg needs Frampton, that’s the difference.”
As you can see, Hearn had a case of motor mouth and was just yapping in ecstasy after the fight, but what came through clear as day from all the blather he was spouting is that he’s not in any hurry to put Frampton in with Quigg. Look at the comments he made. Hearn couldn’t be clearer that he’s not going to out Frampton in with Quigg, and I guess I can’t blame him because Frampton showed vulnerability against Kiko Martinez last night.
We saw that Martinez the bigger puncher, we saw that Frampton had to run, we saw all the god awful clinching Frampton was doing, and we saw how he constantly ducked below the waist to escape from getting hit, much in the same way an ostrich roots for seeds on the ground.
What is interesting are the titles – IBF and WBC – that Hearn wants Frampton to go after. The IBF title is vacant, and the WBC is going to be vacant as well after Abner Mares vacates. So in other words instead of looking to match Frampton against WBO champion Nonito Donaire or WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, Hearn is looking to get Frampton a paper title. How disappointing, but how incredibly predictable it all is.
Frampton doesn’t look good enough to beat the top contenders like Vic Darchinyan, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Jeffrey Mathebula, and Victor Terrazaz, and I have my doubts he’d even beat Quigg. So what we have here is Hearn looking to put Frampton on the soft path away from Donaire and Rigondeaux.
I don’t see how Hearn is going to be able to get a title shot for Frampton any time soon, because he’s ranked #8 WBC and #9 IBF. So unless those two sanctioning bodies suddenly elevates Frampton to the #1 position, which I highly doubt, Frampton isn’t going to be getting a title shot any time soon. How do you have a No.9 contender fighting for a vacant title? You don’t. So when Frampton does come back to fight in May, it’s likely going to be him defending his new European crown against one of the EBU contenders. Currently #1 is Quigg, #2, Kid Galahad, #4 Jeremy Parodi and #4 Ryan Walsh.
I think it’s painfully obvious Hearn will target Walsh, the Brit, and stay far, far away from Quigg. I’m not high on Quigg but he’s got to the power to beat Frampton, if he can catch up to him. That’s the thing, Frampton just flat out runs and you’ve got to spear him with jabs. Martinez didn’t do that and he wasted time chasing him. You don’t chase a runner; you stand and wait for him to come to you and then you nail him in the puss with a jab or a right hand. Quigg would spear the shorter-armed Frampton all night long.
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