By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is saying that the unification fight between his fighter WBA “regular” super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg (31-0-2, 23 KOs) and IBF 122lb champion Carl Frampton (21-0, 14 KOs) is close to getting done.
Hearn thinks the fight can be made within the next two weeks if everything goes right with the negotiations. The negotiations have been dragging out for eons and at times it’s looked like the fight would never get made, but it finally seems to be near the finish line.
“If I had to make a call, I believe this fight gets made in the next couple of weeks. We’re that close now. There’s been a lot of talk about a neutral venue,” Hearn said to skysports.com.
The Frampton-Quigg fight is more of a semi-finals type fight rather than one involving the two best fighters at 122. The guy that is considered to be the champion at 122, WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, has had no luck in getting either of these two fighters in the ring to fight him. In the best possible world, the winner of the Frampton vs. Quigg fight will man-up and face the now 35-year-old Rigondeaux.
If he’s not considered old enough for them to beat at this point, then that’s pretty sad. They didn’t face Rigondeaux when he was younger, and now he’s at an age where you would hope that Frampton and Quigg would finally want to step inside the ring to face him after they finish their business with one another. Do see that happening? Nope.
I think Frampton and Quigg are going to wait for Rigondeaux to age more, and show weakness in one of his fights before they’ll agree to come out of the woodwork to fight him. My guess is we might not see Quigg or Frampton face Rigondeaux for another four to five years, depending on how he ages and looks inside the ring.
If Rigondeaux turns out to be one of those Bernard Hopkins type of fighters who doesn’t age, then I think we’re not going to see Frampton or Quigg ever face him. I mean, Frampton and Quigg will likely no longer be major players at 122 in 5 to 7 years. They’ll obviously be replaced by younger talents in the division. But if Rigondeaux is still fighting at a high level at that point, then we’ll never likely see Frampton and Quigg fight him, which I suspect is what’s going to happen. No way do I see those two fighters get within 3000 miles of Rigondeaux if he keeps fighting like he’s been since he turned pro. It would be too much of a clown-fest with Rigondeaux making Frampton and Quigg look really bad.
“We’re looking at Birmingham, Glasgow and Sheffield but they’re 11,000. Manchester is 21,000 and it’s difficult to ignore the revenues that can be created through that arena. It’s also difficult to persuade Quigg to fight where there’s less money,” Hearn said.
Frampton is coming off of an unimpressive 12 round decision win over Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. on July 18th on Premier Boxing Champions in a fight he was knocked down twice in. Quigg destroyed Kiko Martinez in two rounds on the same date on 7/18.
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