By Scott Gilfoid: If IBF super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton doesn’t wind up facing WBA 122 pound champ Scott Quigg this summer in a mini-mega fight in the UK, the 28-year-old Frampton still sees himself as having options for bigger fights that he can take.
Frampton, 5’4”, and Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn were temporarily in negotiations for a fight. But after Quigg made an offer of £1.5 million for a fight that would take place in Manchester, the negotiations completely died. Frampton feels he’s worth a lot more than that amount, but it doesn’t look like Hearn feels the same way.
“The fight can be made if Hearn will have a meeting with us,” Frampton said via the Belfasttelegraph.co.uk. “How do you make a fight if the other team won’t have a meeting? Even if it doesn’t get made for the summer, I have plenty of options – a lot more than he does that’s for sure.”
I don’t think either guy has good options available to them. The super bantamweight division is barren of big names. There’s only Guillermo Rigondeaux and Leo Santa Cruz as far as big names go, and neither Frampton nor Quigg appear to be in a hurry to face either of those guys. It would be interesting to hear what Frampton says about his options for his next fight in the summer, because there’s only obscure contenders for him to fight.
If Frampton wants to whitewash it by calling the little known contenders good options than more power to him. But unless Frampton and his promoters at Cyclone Promotions want to start facing better opposition in Rigondeaux, Nonito Donaire or Santa Cruz, then about the only thing Frampton can do to get a big money fight would be for him to move up in weight four pounds to face at featherweight against WBA champion Nicholas Walters, WBC champ Gary Russell Jr. or WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko. I think Frampton could get a fight against one of those fighters.
Frampton should think about taking the money that Hearn has offered to him because I think it’s probably the safest of the fights available by far. Unless Frampton wants to take a dangerous opponent, he needs to take Hearn up on his offer while it’s still there. If Frampton doesn’t take the fight with Quigg soon then someone else is going to get to him and give him his first loss.
Rigondeaux is already putting tremendous pressure on the World Boxing Association to get them to finally order that he face Quigg. Normally the top champions aren’t in a hurry to face their mandatory but in this case Rigondeaux is the one that is trying to force it. Once that happens, and it definitely will at some point, Quigg will either have to face Rigondeaux or end up vacating the title. Either way, it’s going to likely wind up bad for Quigg. If he vacates, he’s going to look bad because boxing fans will see him having ducked the fight. If he takes the fight with Rigondeaux then we’ll probably see 12 rounds of Rigo clowning Quigg in beating him with ease. For that reason, Frampton needs to take the fight with Quigg. The options are definitely not better for Frampton unless he wants to continue facing soft opposition.
Comments are closed.