By Charles Brun: The WBO has given the green light for super featherweight champion Jamel Herring to defend next against #6 Carl Frampton with the contest’s winner to defend t face #1 contender Shakur Stevenson within 90 days.
It’s a quick turnaround for the Herring-Frampton winner to face Stevenson (14-0, 8 KOs) to soon after their fight, but it probably won’t matter.
Even if Frampton and Herring had a lot of time to rest up before fighting Shakur, they’d still have a massive amount of problems trying to beat him.
According to Lance Pugmire, Herring (22-2, 10 KOs) vs. Frampton could take place in January. It’s a good fight, but you have to question the World Boxing Organization sanctioning the contest given the fact that Frampton, 33, has done essentially zero to deserve a title shot at 130.
Frampton, with a two-fight winning streak
Since moving up in weight to super featherweight last November, Frampton has had one fight in the division, beating Tyler McCreary by a 10 round unanimous decision.
In Frampton’s last fight, he moved up to lightweight and defeated Darren Trayner by a seventh-round knockout last August. However, you can’t count that as a super-featherweight bout because it took place at 135.
Herring, 34, is coming off an 8th round disqualification win over fringe contender Jonathan Oquendo in Las Vegas, Nevada. It looked like Herring was breaking from the pressure that Oquendo was putting on him, and his body language by the 8th was that of someone that didn’t want anymore.
Had that fight gone another three rounds, Oquendo might have knocked him out. That performance by Herring showed that he’s by far the weakest of the champions at 130.
Frampton (28-2, 16 KOs) has an excellent chance of beating Herring to become a three-division world champion, which is his goal. Carl wants that third title, as he feels it’s a big accomplishment.
Unfortunately, any victory for Frampton will be fleeting because he’ll need to face Stevenson soon after withing 90 days. If Frampton can’t even beat Josh Warrington, then what are his chances against a talent like the 23-year-old Shakur? Slim and none.
On the positive side, Frampton has won his last two fights since being beaten by Warrington in a one-sided 12 round decision defeat in December 2018. However, the opposition that Frampton has faced in those last two fights have been less than stellar, which goes back to the idea of him not having earned a title shot against Herring.
Herring-Frampton = business level fight
Herring vs. Frampton is more of a business type of fight rather than sports-related. It’s more based on Frampton being a popular fighter that sells tickets rather than what he’s done since moving up to 130, which is zilch.
If this was the NFL, we’d bee seeing a team being given a Super Bowl berth based on their popularity rather than them having slogged through an entire 16-game season, including the playoffs, to earn that right to play in the game. Frampton getting a title shot against WBO super-featherweight champion Herring has to be put in perspective.
It’s not about Frampton earning the fight. He’s getting that title shot based on his popularity and being promoted by the same guys at Top Rank. In a perfect world, Frampton would face Stevenson and beat him to earn the title shot against Herring.
I hate to say it, but that wouldn’t happen. Not only would Frampton likely not take that fight, but he would also undoubtedly lose if he did.
There aren’t too many boxing fans that would pick Frampton to defeat a talent like Shakur, even if the contest took place in his hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
If Frampton had taken on and beaten Oscar Valdez, Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman, or Chris Colbert, there would be less grumbling about him being gifted a title shot in his second fight at 130.
Those guys would be very tough fights for Frampton, and I’m not sure that he would beat any of them. It’s not that Frampton isn’t a good fighter. He’s certainly talented, but he’s not as talented as he needs to be for him to beat the quality contenders.
With that said, Frampton will be the favorite to defeat Herring because he’s there to be beaten, as we saw in his last contest against Oquendo.
“Breaking: Jamel Herring-Carl Frampton super-featherweight title fight sanctioned by WBO with order that winner must defend belt vs.ShakurStevenson within 90 days after that.
Told by an individual close to the situation that Jamel Herring and Carl Frampton may be best suited to go in January, but there is excitement over this scenario with Shakur Stevenson looming,” said @pugboxing.