Carl Frampton – The Pride of Belfast , Northern Ireland & Ulster

Carl Frampton retains IBF Super Bantamweight world title with battling display

Carl Frampton knocks out Kiko Martinez Belfast 2013

Carl Frampton (born 21 February 1987) is a Northern Irish professional boxer from Tiger’s Bay, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He fights in the Super Bantamweight division ^[1] and is the current IBF World Super Bantamweight champion. He is managed by former WBA Featherweight champion and Boxing Hall Of Fame inductee, Barry McGuigan.^[2]

Amateur career

Amateur boxing in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is governed by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association. As an amateur, Frampton fought out of the Midland Boxing Club in Tiger’s Bay and won the Irish senior flyweight title in 2005 and added the Irish featherweight title in 2009, beating David Oliver Joyce in the final.^[3]

He also claimed a silver medal at the 2007 European Union Amateur Boxing Championships in Dublin, losing to France’s Khedafi Djelkhir in the final.^[4] Frampton is one of Ireland’s most successful amateur boxers of recent years, winning over 100 of his fights and losing only 8 times.

Later commenting on his decision to box for the Irish team, Frampton, who grew up in a Unionist area of Belfast, said “I get asked all the time, ‘would you have liked to have boxed for Great Britain?’ And the answer is ‘no’. I was looked after by Irish boxing from pretty much 11 years old and was very proud to box for Ireland.”^[5]

Professional career

Early career

Frampton turned professional after his victory in the 2009 Irish featherweight finals. In June 2009, fought his first professional fight at the Olympia, Liverpool, in England and beat Sandor Szinavel with a second-round knock-out on a card that included Grzegorz Proksa and Ajose Olusegan. In January 2010, he was named Ireland’s Prospect of the Year at the Irish National Boxing Awards. In September 2010 he recorded an “electrifying” win over the Ukrainian Yuri Voronin in front of an Ulster Hall crowd which included Daniel Day-Lewis. The win led the Belfast Telegraph to liken him to a “reincarnation” of Barry McGuigan.^[6]

In December 2010, Frampton won his first professional title, the BBBofC Celtic Super Bantamweight title, with a second-round TKO win over Scottish boxer Gavin Reid in the Ulster Hall.^[7][8] Following his victory, Frampton described the Super Bantamweight division as being “super-hot” and named Scott Quigg and Rendall Munroe as potential opponents. He then went on to get a fourth-round TKO win over Venezuelan Oscar Chacin, and later fought his first defence of his BBBofC Celtic title against Welshman Robbie Turley in June 2011, winning by a unanimous decision after ten rounds.

Commonwealth and Inter-Continental champion

Carl fought Australian Mark Quon as a replacement for Kiko Martinez on 10 September for the Commonwealth Super Bantamweight title at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast winning by a fourth-round TKO stoppage.^[9] On 28 January 2012, he successfully defended his Commonwealth title against Kris Hughes in the York Hall, with the fight having to be stopped in the seventh round. According to the BBC, Frampton controlled the contest from the start and was never threatened by his opponent.^[10] On 17 March 2012, Frampton once again defended his title against Ghana‘s Prosper Ankrah and won by a second-round TKO stoppage. After his victory Frampton challenged the British Champion Scott Quigg saying that “I don’t know if he wants it but, if he does, he should tell his promoter”.^[11]

Frampton then beat fellow unbeaten contender Raúl Hirales, Jr. (previously 16-0, 8 KO’s) of Mexico by a unanimous decision and won the vacant IBF Inter-continental Super Bantamweight title on the undercard of Carl Froch vs. Lucian Bute in Nottingham, UK. The fight took place on 26 May 2012. On 22 September 2012, Frampton took on former two-time world champion Steve Molitor. The fight took place in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on a card that included Martin Lindsay and Paul McCloskey. Frampton scored an impressive sixth-round TKO and had the former champion on the canvas three times during the bout. After the fight, Frampton announced that he was willing to “fight anyone” and that he was “ready for a world title fight”.^[12]

European champion

On 9 February 2013, Carl Frampton faced hard-punching Spaniard Kiko Martinez in front of 8,000 of his home fans in the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. Martinez, the European Champion, had previously knocked out Bernard Dunne in 86 seconds^[13] to win the title and had never been knocked down. Frampton won by TKO in Round 9, winning the European Super Bantamweight title and retaining the IBF Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight title. After the fight Frampton said “I just want the people of Belfast to be proud of me,” and described his beaten opponent as “hard as nails”.^[14] In August 2014, Martinez won the IBF title with a sixth-round stoppage of the previously unbeaten Colombian Jonatan Romero.

On 19 October 2013, Frampton defended his EBU and IBF Inter-Continental titles in an IBF World Title Eliminator against IBF #4 ranked Jeremy Parodi. The fight took place in front of a maximum capacity 9,000 fans at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast. Frampton knocked Parodi out with a body shot at the end of the sixth round.^[15] On 4 April 2014 Frampton faced the Mexican Hugo Cazares at the Odyssey Arena in a final eliminator for Leo Santa Cruz‘s WBC Super Bantamweight World Championship. In front of a sold-out crowd of 9,000 Frampton knocked out Cazares in the 2nd Round, with a left hook to the head.^[16]

World champion

Frampton challenged for his first world title on 6 September 2014 in a rematch against Kiko Martinez. Martinez’s IBF Super Bantamweight title was at stake and the bout took place in an outdoor arena at the Titanic Quarter in Belfast.^[17] In the build-up to the fight, Frampton said of Martinez: “He’s very emotional and that’s what makes him dangerous… he’s a hot-head, he can be very easily agitated but he’s coming to win”.^[18] Fighting in front of a crowd of 16,000 Frampton knocked Martinez down in the fifth round and won by unanimous decision, with two scores of 119-108 and one score of 118-111, winning his first world title. Interviewed after the fight Frampton said “I’ve got the world title. I feel a bit emotional – it has been a long time coming, it has been a hard road. I intend to hang on to it for a very long time.”^[19] He went on to call for a unification fight with the WBA champion Scott Quigg, saying “I’ll fight him in Manchester, I’ll fight him anywhere”.^[20] After the fight, Barry McGuigan said of his protege “This kid could end up as the best Irish fighter there has ever been.”^[21] As result of his performances Frampton was nominated for the 2014 RTE Sports Person of the Year. In 2015 he was named Britain’s Coolest Man by ZOO Magazine beating the likes of David Beckham, Tom Hardy and Ed Sheeran to get the award. Frampton said after receiving the award, “I couldn’t believe it when they told me, I thought it was a wind-up! But it’s great, especially as it’s ZOO readers and the people of Britain who have voted for me. It’s also great for the sport of boxing.”^[22]

Professional boxing record

21 Wins (14 knockouts, 7 decisions), 0 Losses, 0 Draws[23]
Res.	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Win	21–0	Alejandro González, Jr.	UD	12	2015-07-18	Don Haskins Center, El Paso, Texas	Retained IBF Super Bantamweight title.
Win	20–0	Chris Avalos	TKO	5 (12), 1:33	2015-02-28	Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Retained IBF Super Bantamweight title.
Win	19–0	Kiko Martínez	UD	12	2014-09-06	Titanic Quarter, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Won IBF Super Bantamweight title.
Win	18–0	Hugo Cázares	KO	2 (12), 1:38	2014-04-04	Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland	WBC Super Bantamweight title final eliminator.
Win	17–0	Jeremy Parodi	KO	6 (12), 2:59	2013-10-19	Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Retained EBU European and IBF Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight titles.
Win	16–0	Kiko Martínez	TKO	9 (12), 2:46	2013-02-09	Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Won EBU European Super Bantamweight title. Retained IBF Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight title.
Win	15–0	Steve Molitor	TKO	6 (12), 2:21	2012-09-22	Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Retained Commonwealth and IBF Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight titles.
Win	14–0	Raúl Hirales, Jr.	UD	12	2012-05-26	Nottingham Arena, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England	Won vacant IBF Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight title.
Win	13–0	Prosper Ankrah	KO	2 (12), 2:45	2012-03-27	Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England	Retained Commonwealth Super Bantamweight title.
Win	12–0	Kris Hughes	TKO	7 (12), 0:48	2012-01-28	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, England	Retained Commonwealth Super Bantamweight title.
Win	11–0	Mark Quon	TKO	4 (12), 1:11	2011-09-10	Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Won vacant Commonwealth Super Bantamweight title.
Win	10–0	Robbie Turley	UD	10	2011-06-04	Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales	Retained BBBofC Celtic Super Bantamweight title.
Win	9–0	Oscar Chacin	TKO	4 (6), 2:20	2011-03-05	Leisure Centre, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England
Win	8–0	Gavin Reid	TKO	2 (10), 2:29	2010-12-03	Ulster Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Won vacant BBBofC Celtic Super Bantamweight title.
Win	7–0	Yuriy Voronin	TKO	3 (8), 2:43	2010-09-18	Ulster Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Win	6–0	Ian Bailey	UD	6	2010-06-11	King’s Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Win	5–0	Istvan Szabo	TKO	1 (6), 0:48	2010-03-05	Leisure Centre, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England
Win	4–0	Yoan Boyeaux	UD	4	2010-02-12	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, England
Win	3–0	Ignac Kassai	TKO	3 (4), 1:26	2009-11-06	Meadowbank Sports Arena, Magherafelt, Northern Ireland
Win	2–0	Yannis Lakrout	UD	4	2009-09-04	Eston Sports Academy, Teesville, Middlesbrough, England
Win	1–0	Sandor Szinavel	TKO	2 (4), 2:03	2009-06-12	Olympia, Liverpool, Merseyside, England	Professional debut.

Titles in boxing

World Titles:

• IBF World Super Bantamweight title

Regional / Continental Titles:

• EBU European Super Bantamweight title

• IBF Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight title

• Commonwealth Super Bantamweight title

• BBBofC Celtic Super Bantamweight title

if you have enjoyed reading my story and daily blogs please consider making a small donation