History could be made later this month. Belfast’s Carl Frampton has his sights firmly set on becoming the first three-weight world champion from the island of Ireland and only Jamel Herring stands in his way. Of course, the WBO super featherweight champion will be no walk in the park for the Northern Irish boxer, but a victory for ‘The Jackal’ is certainly on the cards – according to the Carl Frampton betting odds.
Understandably, Frampton is oozing with confidence ahead of the much anticipated bout, which has been a long time in the making due to several postponements surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, and he believes that nobody can stop him from becoming world champion for a third time.
“I’m delighted to finally get a date nailed down for this fight that has now been talked about for over a year,” the 33-year-old said. “I have the utmost respect for Jamel as a fighter and as a man.
“But there is nobody stopping me on becoming the island of Ireland’s only ever three-weight world champion, one of Britain’s only ever three-weight world champions and potentially have one foot in the hall of fame.”
However, Herring is brimming with self-belief as well. He admitted that the bout may well be the biggest fight of his career thus far, but that hasn’t dented his confidence and he firmly believes that he will be returning to New York with his world title belt still in possession.
“It may be the biggest fight of my career to date, but I’ll be more than ready for the task ahead,” the former US solider said. “There’s a lot on the line, and I know he’s aiming to make history, but he’ll have to wait another day, because I plan on returning home with my title in hand.”
There are a number of factors swaying in Herrings favour. Firstly, he has a substantial height advantage over Frampton. At 5’10”, ‘Semper Fi’ is a huge five inches taller than the Belfast man, whilst his reach is a jaw-dropping eight inches longer than that of The Jackal’s. If he can keep Frampton at arm’s reach, and not let his challenger into pockets where he can cause real damage, Herring could jab his way to victory on the judge’s scorecards.
With the fight taking place in London, the American will be out of his comfort zone in the English capital. After all, this is his first bout outside of the United States. However, the fact that Frampton won’t have his usual boisterous fanbase to spur him on from the stands, could play into the hands of Herring.
Herring can also take confidence from the fact that Frampton has lost in his last two world title bouts. After beating Léo Santa Cruz to win his second world title in 2017, The Jackal lost the rematch to the Mexican in Las Vegas. That was Frampton’s first defeat of his career, and after rebuilding with victories over Horacio García, Nonito Donaire and Luke Jackson he was handed another crack at winning a belt against Josh Warrington.
However, the Leeds’ born boxer defended his IBF featherweight belt with a rather comfortable victory on the scorecards. That was a defeat that had Frampton questioning his future in boxing.
“I don’t even want to think about boxing I just want to go home and see my kids and we’ll see, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” The Jackal said after the bout. “I just want to chill out with my family and forget about boxing for a bit.
“I’ll make a conscious decision I think – I’ll get Christmas out the way and New Year and then I’ll make a conscious decision of what I’m going to do.”
Since then, Frampton has gotten his career back on track with victories over Tyler McCreary and Darren Traynor. But, it’s worth nothing that they are far from the standard of Herring, and the Belfast boxer will need to dig deep to find the stunning performances of yesteryear, the kind of showing which saw him defeat the likes of Scott Quigg and Santa Cruz, if he wants to beat Herring.
Should the American defend his title, it’s almost certain that, this time, Frampton will call it a day. Fights of this magnitude will be hard to come by for the Northern Irishman should he lose his third-successive title fight, but either way he can sail away into the sunset as one of the best sportsmen ever produced by the little country.
Image Credits: PDPics
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