Since I retired as a professional boxer myself, I have been inundated with requests to manage, promote or train professional fighters.
I was always happy to pass on advice and give guidance to the various different boxers seeking help, however after watching Belfast boxer Carl Frampton win the European Union silver medal and the Irish Senior Featherweight title in 2009 – I decided to manage and promote him.
He is a dynamic box fighter with knockout power in either hand. I have promoted two hugely successful televised shows in Belfast’s atmospheric Ulster Hall, with Carl winning the Celtic title in the last one on December 3rd 2010. I believe Frampton is a world class fighter and with my guidance and expertise in every aspect of the game I believe he now has the opportunity to go all the way to the top, while at the same time reigniting Belfast as a fight capital.
I am keeping my eyes open for other up and coming talented boxers throughout the four nations.
Carl Frampton is one of Ireland and Britain’s leading professional boxing prospects. Frampton not only won the Celtic Title in 2010 but also garnered Irishboxing.com ‘Prospect of the Year’ award. Frampton, known as “The Jackal”, turned pro in June 2009 with Barry McGuigan having ended a glorious amateur career with the Irish Senior title at Featherweight. This was the second Irish Senior Title for the Tigers Bay native, having bagged the Flyweight top prize in 2005. These two prestigious domestic senior titles, combined with 12 international medals from around the Globe highlight what a glittering amateur career this Belfast boxer had (Frampton finished his amateur career with a stellar 114-11 record). Even so, it is Frampton’s current turbo-charged rise up the Professional ranks that is shocking most people.
Originally from the Midland Amateur Boxing Club in Tigers Bay, Belfast, Frampton moved to the Holy Family Golden Gloves Boxing Club to work under the world-renowned trainer Gerry Storey after turning professional. This move has proved a successful one as Frampton has exploded onto the British pro-scene racking up an impressive 9-0 record with six of those wins coming by way of knockout.
“The Jackal” has already stopped former two-time European Featherweight Title challenger Yuri Voronin in three action packed rounds at the seminal Ulster Hall, Belfast. Frampton also obliterated the usually teak tuff Gavin Reid in two one sided rounds for the vacant BBBofC Celtic Super Bantamweight Title in December 2010 at the same venue. Couple these results with Frampton’s most recent fight, a brutal dissection of Venezuelan hard man Oscar Chacin inside four rounds, and you begin to see the potential of the Tigers Bay man. Chacin was a fighter who had in his previous contest gone the full six round distance with Europe’s supposed number one Super Bantamweight Kiko Martinez of Spain.
Frampton has created quite a buzz in Northern Ireland following these impressive wins, and the hype that surrounds this heavily touted prospect continues to increase. This was further aided in December when Carl appeared on RTE’s ‘Late Late’ show with McGuigan after his impressive victory over Gavin Reid.
Carl is an aggressive fighter with destructive punching power. However it is his intelligence inside the ring and speed of hand and foot that cause his opponents the most problems. The experience he has gained from a lengthy amateur career has undoubtedly helped form his fantastic ability to get in and out of distance, and knowledge of when in, and not in, punching range. A boxer must possess these abilities if realistically attempting to become world class. Frampton puts his punches together with intelligence, mixing hard combinations to the head and body. It is a very difficult ask for a boxer to headline a bill so early in their career, but twice Frampton seemed to handle it with ease, he is a great performer under pressure.
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Celtic Super-Bantamweight Title
Commonwealth Super-Bantamweight Title
AMATEUR ACHIEVEMENTS
European School Boys Silver Medal
4 Nations Junior Gold Medal
6 Nations Junior Gold Medal
2005 Commonwealth Youth Games Bronze Medal (Bantamweight)
2005 Irish Senior Flyweight Champion
2005 Multi Nations Gold Ballybunion (Flyweight)
2006 Commonwealth Championship Bronze Medal (Flyweight)
2006 Gee Bee Helsinki Silver Medal (Flyweight)
2007 European Union Championship Silver Medal (Featherweight)
2008 Cyprus Box Cup Gold Medal (Featherweight)
2008 Ahmet Comert Tournament, Istanbul: Bronze Medal (Featherweight)
2009 Ahmet Comert Tournament, Istanbul: Gold Medal (Featherweight)
2009 Czech Republic Box Cup Bronze Medal (Featherweight)
2009 Irish Senior Featherweight Champion
When Frampton turned professional in June 2009, he was the Number 1 ranked Featherweight in Britain and Ireland, and the Number 2 in Europe.
