By Scott Gilfoid: #2 IBF Carl Frampton (19-0, 13 KOs) defeated IBF super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (31-5, 23 KOs) tonight by a 12 round unanimous decision to capture the IBF 122 pound title at the Titanic Quarter, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The final judges’ scores were 119-108, 119-108 and 118-111.
Frampton knocked Martinez down in the 5th round after catching Martinez with a right hand while he was coming forward. It was a balance thing where Frampton caught Martinez on the way in rather than Martinez being hurt.
Martinez had problems pulling the trigger on his shots, and he fought like a fighter that was past it. The openings were there all night for Martinez but he wouldn’t pull the trigger on his punches for some odd reason. It was the most confusing and saddest thing I’ve ever seen from a champion. He’s so much talent but he wouldn’t throw his punches.
In the 4th round, Frampton got away with a head-butt that opened up a cut on the left side of Martinez’s eye. Surprisingly, the referee ruled it as an accidental head-butt even though he’d warned Frampton about the head-butt. Needless to say it was very, very weird.
In the 5th round, Frampton slipped on the canvas after taking a shot. It looked to me that Martinez scored a knockdown. While Frampton was down, Martinez evened the score by nailing him with a right hand to the back of the head. It looked like Martinez was paying Frampton back for being head-butted in the 4th round. The referee stopped the action and gave Martinez a warning but he opted not to take points off.
For most of the fight, Frampton basically held his left arm far out in front of him like a stick to keep Martinez from getting close to him. Normally, a referee warns a fighter that does that and then takes points off, but this referee let Frampton use that move the entire fight. It made it nearly impossible for Martinez to get close because he was constantly being pushed off by Frampton’s extended left hand.
Aside from that, Frampton ran and held much of the fight, which made it very difficult to watch. Frampton would stop running every now and then and land shots.
After the fight Frampton’s adviser Barrie McGuigan said that Frampton injured his right hand and that he has a lot of bruising. McGuigan said the injuries and swelling may make it difficult for Frampton to defend his belt against his mandatory Chris Avalos, who is a very tough opponent. But it looks like Frampton won’t be ready to take the fight anytime soon.
Frampton said “There’s so many options, but the guy I really want is Scott Quigg. Eddie Hearn needs to realize that I’m the one with a legitimate belt.”
Interestingly enough, neither Frampton nor McGuigan mentioned wanting to fight the fighter that is considered by many boxing fans to be far and away the best fighter in the super bantamweight division in WBA/WBO 122 pound champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. I mean, you have to wonder why Frampton and his management aren’t showing interest in fighting Rigondeaux.
Former three division world champion Abner Mares tweeted the following message today: “I can see myself going down in weight just to fight Frampton. It would be a great fight. #MaresVsFrampton.”
I can’t see Frampton beating a fighter as good as Mares. That’s a whole different animal than what we saw from Martinez. Mares can actually pull the trigger and he’d be a nightmare for Frampton.
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