By Scott Gilfoid: A fight between Carl ‘The Jackal’ Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs) and former 4 division world champion Nonito ‘The Filipino Flash’ Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) is a possibility before the end of the year. Donaire, 35, says he’s hearing there are talks going on between his team and Frampton’s.
Frampton, 29, wants to get a fight in before the end of 2017 while he waits for the dust to settle between IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby and Josh Warrington for their clash in early 2018. Frampton can’t just sit around and wait. He’s got to keep busy. One way for him to do that is to take on the aging Donaire, whose career is not what it once was. Donaire is a dangerous fighter due to his incredible punching power, but he’s not winning at the highest level like he once did.
“Carl Frampton, heard our teams have been talking,” said Donaire on his social media site. ”Couldn’t make this fight before but now [there] are no obstacles standing in the way. Greatest respect for you as a fighter. See you in the ring wherever you want the fight to be,” said Donaire.
Frampton then replied to Donaire with this response:
“[It] would be a great fight Nonito.”
Whether Frampton is serious about being interested in facing Donaire is debatable at this time. Frampton never seemed to show a lot of interest in facing Donaire when the two of them were both fighting at super bantamweight, even though both guys were in the division for many years. You would think that the time for Frampton to have shown the desire to fight Donaire would have been from 2009 to 2016. Frampton was in the same division as Donaire for many of those years, and yet the fight was never made.
Frampton did not look good in coming off of a 10-month layoff to beat Mexican Horacio Garcia (33-4-1, 24 KOs) on November 18 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Frampton was dropped in round 7, and pressured for the last 5 rounds of the contest. Garcia landed the better shots throughout the contest, and he looked like the stronger fighter of the two at the end. The way that Frampton fought Garcia, it sent warning signals that the Irish fighter might be on the downside of his career and showing signs of serious deterioration from his wars against Scott Quigg, Leo Santa Cruz, Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. and Kiko Martinez.
Donaire might be a little too dangerous for Frampton at this point. I would expect Frampton to swerve that fight, because there’s too high of a risk for him. Donaire is still fast, and his punching power is every bit as good as it ever was. The things that Donaire lacks at this stage in his career are his cat-like reflexes and his stamina. Donaire isn’t as fast as he used to be, and his stamina isn’t the same either.
Donaire was beaten by Jessie Magdalano by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in November 2016. Donaire lost his WBO World super bantamweight title with that defeat. In Donaire’s last fight, he rebounded with a 10 round unanimous decision win over Ruben Garcia Hernandez on September 23 to win the vacant WBC Silver featherweight title. It was a good performance by Donaire against a weak opponent. Before Donaire’s loss to Magdaleno last year, he had won 4 fights in a row since losing to Nicholas Walters in 2014.
I’d be VERY surprised if Frampton takes the fight with Donaire. There’s too high of a chance of Donaire knocking Frampton out. The way that Horacio Garcia was overpowering Frampton was disturbing. Frampton looked old and weak in that fight. Donaire is naturally the much more powerful guy than Frampton, and he’s still faster than him. At 35, Donaire is still very, very fast, and that power makes him dangerous to anyone in the featherweight division, especially a fading fighter like Frampton.