Carl Frampton Reflects On US Debut / Calls Out Scott Quigg

By Olly Campbell - 07/24/2015 - Comments

Last Saturday, Northern Ireland’s IBF 122 lb champion Carl Frampton survived two 1st round knockdowns and some early heat in his US debut against Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Jr, only to dig deep, refocus and boss his way back into the fight, eventually claiming the unanimous decision victory.

Immediately following the fight the Tiger’s Bay native and new Al Haymon signing was perhaps overly critical of his performance, with trainer Shane McGuigan even going as far as to suggest that a potential move up to 126 lbs could be on the cards after “The Jackal” struggled more than ever to make the 122 lb limit.

With time to reflect, Frampton has spoken honestly to the Belfast Newsletter to acknowledge that mistakes were made in preparation for his American debut on Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and that no such thing will happen again;

“I think as a team, we probably overlooked this guy a bit and we thought it was going to be much easier than it was.

“But he’s a young Mexican, he had a young family, he had a big chance to upset me and he went out and had a brilliant first round. But luckily enough I pulled it back and got the win.”

“I’m not going to put my head in the sand here. I know there were mistakes made, my teams knows there were mistakes made and we’ll learn from them and I think I’ll become a better fighter from it”

Following the victory, all attention inevitably turned to the domestic grudge match with Bury’s Scott Quigg – who destroyed former Frampton foe Kiko Martinez inside two rounds in Manchester on the same night – and in a separate interview today with BBC radio, Frampton has spoken to say that he still wants the fight, although little has changed even in light of last weekend’s performances;

“The message is bring it on – I hope we can get an agreement” he said

“I’m happy to fight him in his own backyard but he just needs to remember who is the boss when it comes to negotiations.”

Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn said last week that he would be making a revised offer to Frampton and manager Barry McGuigan in hope of getting the fight on at last, and fans need not worry about Frampton moving up to 126 after all.

“I’m a career super-bantamweight – I just misjudged things, just got things wrong a little bit,” he said.

“I can make 8st 10lbs again if I have to. It’s never comfortable, it’s never easy and it’s a hard slog to do it.”

As far as Quigg goes, his team are already in talks to face 32 year old 4 weight world champ Nonito Donaire next.

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