By Tim Royner: Carl Frampton has suffered a left hand injury, and he won’t be able to fight journeyman Emmanuel Dominguez (26-8-2, 18 KOs) this Saturday night on ESPN+ as scheduled at the Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An ornament supposedly fell on Frampton’s left hand, breaking it two places.
Instead of the Frampton-Dominguez fight headlining the Top Rank Boxing promoted card, the co-feature fight between Jason Sosa and Haskell Lydell Rhodes will be moved to the headliner. The fight card starts at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT on ESPN+.
Frampton off Saturday’s ESPN+ card
“Been told Carl Frampton is out of Saturday’s ESPN+ main event due to injury. More to come. With Carl Frampton out with a left hand injury, Jason Sosa vs. Haskell Lydell Rhodes, a 10-round junior lightweight bout, will move into the ESPN+ main event slot on Saturday. #boxing,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter.
Frampton’s fight with Dominguez had little buzz
There wasn’t a whole lot of interest in the Frampton vs. Dominguez fight from the fans. Frampton is still a good fighter, so it’s strange that Top Rank had him fighting such a poor opponent on ESPN+. With the almost nonexistent talk about the Frampton-Dominguez fight on social media by boxing fans, it’s likely few people will care that the match has been canceled. At Frampton’s age he needs to be fighting top tier world class opponents, not journeymen guys dug up for him to pad his record against.
Frampton has been on the slide since 2016
Former two division world champion Frampton (26-2, 15 KOs) was an excellent fighter in his prime, but he’s slipped a notch or two with losses to Josh Warrington and Leo Santa Cruz. Many boxing fans had Frampton losing BOTH fights against Santa Cruz. Frampton beat Santa Cruz in New York in front of a large pro-Frampton crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Staging the fight in New York was a brilliant move for Frampton’s promoters, because Santa Cruz is from California, and has fan base was far away.
Frampton won a controversial 10 round unanimous decision over Horacio Garcia two years ago in November 2017, and that was a fight that showed that Carl had lost something from his game. Frampton was fortunate to defeat Garcia.
The fight took place in Frampton’s hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since that contest, Frampton defeated Nonito Donaire by a harder than expected 12 round unanimous decision in April 2018, and then beat soft touch Luke Jackson by a ninth round knockout last year in August before losing to Warrington by a 12 round unanimous decision last December in Manchester, England.
Sosa and Rhodes to fight in main event
Former WBA super featherweight champion Jason Sosa (22-3-4, 15 KOs) is facing the capable Haskell Lydell Rhodes (27-3-1, 13 KOs) in a match that was originally scheduled for 10 rounds. It’s unknown if the fight will be extended to 12 rounds now that it’s been moved into the headliner slot. Sosa, 31, has won his last two fights against Moises Delgadillo and Reynaldo Blanco since losing consecutive matches to Vasiliy Lomachenko and Yuriorkis Gamboa in 2017/2018.
In the best wins of his career, Sosa beat Javier Fortuna by an 11th round knockout in June 2016 to capture the World Boxing Association super featherweight title. Sosa successfully defended the belt once in beating Stephen Smith by a 12 round unanimous decision in November 2016 before losing the belt to Lomachenko in 2017.