By Scott Gilfoid: EBU super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton’s promoter Eddie Hearn is counting on being able to lure with the promise of a nice payday the winner of this Saturday’s match-up between Jonathan Romero (22-0, 12 KO’s) and Alejandro Lopez (24-2, 7 KO’s) to come over to fight Frampton in Belfast in May.
Lopez-Romero are fighting for Nonito Donaire’s vacated IBF super bantamweight title on Saturday in Tijuana, Mexico, and Hearn fancies Frampton’s chances of fighting the winner of that fight.
It’s interesting that Hearn isn’t positioning Frampton to face either Donaire or Rigondeaux for their titles. That would be the more courageous thing to do, but given how Frampton performed against Kiko Martinez last Saturday night, it would obviously be a very bad idea for Hearn to put Frampton in with either Donaire or Rigondeaux until they’re much, much older, like over 40 and past it. Right now, Frampton would get obliterated by either one of those fighters the way I see it, and that’s just the way it is.
Hearn said to thaboxingvoice.com “The IBF fight on Friday [It’s actually on Saturday, Hearn] night. We’d [Frampton] like to fight the winner. If not, fight a final eliminator to become the mandatory, but when you fill 9000 seat stadiums [like Frampton] in Belfast, you have the opportunity to bring the champions over because you’ve got the money. At 122 pounds, the money doesn’t have to be that great to bring the champions over. So hopefully we can get the winner of the IBF fight on Friday [Saturday], and make a big world title fight in the Summer.”
Hearn went on to say that he doesn’t want to match Frampton with WBA interim super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg until Frampton has a world title in his possession so that it’ll be a world title fight instead of a bout between an EBU champion and an interim WBA belt holder.
So it looks Hearn is going to try and make an offer to the Lopez-Romero winner to get one of them to come over to Belfast in May or slightly later to fight Frampton in front of his home crowd, despite the fact that Frampton would be the challenger, not the champion. In other words, it would be like when Kostya Tszyu came over to the UK to defend his IBF light welterweight title against Ricky Hatton in 2005 instead of Hatton coming to Australia to fight Tszyu in his adopted home country.
I just hope the fight is refereed a little better than the Hatton-Tszyu one was, because Hatton was wrestling and holding all night without losing points. I think Tszyu, although clearly past his prime at that point in his career, would have won the fight had the referee kept Hatton from wrestling him each time he tried to throw punches.
The 5’9″ Romero, from Colombia, will likely beat Lopez. He’s tall for a super bantamweight and he tends to keep his opposition in the outside. Romero reminds me a lot of IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez with his movement and loose fighting style. Lopez is fighting well right now, having beaten Teon Kennady and Takalani Ndlovu recently by lopsided decisions. Lopez will make it tough on Romero that’s for sure.
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