Frampton's fight with Herring means either making history or retirement

Junior lightweight world title fight set for Saturday in Dubai

Carl Frampton will either make the boxing history he has been chasing or see his career come to an end on Saturday, barring a draw, of course.

Frampton, who has won world titles at junior featherweight and featherweight, will challenge Jamel Herring for his junior lightweight belt in a long-delayed fight at Caesars Bluewaters Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET).

At one end of the spectrum, Northern Ireland’s Frampton can become the first Irish fighter to win world titles in three weight classes. That’s a big deal to him.

“It would mean the world to me to become a three-weight world champion, not just for me but for the people that have helped me on my journey,” Frampton said at the pre-fight news conference on Thursday. “I'm very proud of what I've done in my career so far, and this is a chance to go down as the only ever three-weight world champion from the whole island of Ireland — one of the only British fighters to ever do it as well.

“You join an absolute elite bunch of global fighters to do that. I want to do that. I'm so determined to make that happen on the night, and personally, it will mean the world to me. I respect Jamel Herring, and for me to win this fight I need to get it perfect on the night. I'm fully confident, and feel like the stars are coming together.”

Trainer Jamie Moore is anxious to see his man fulfill his goal.

“At the start of camp you sort of have a vision in your mind of where you want Carl to be at the end of camp, and he's managed to exceed that. I couldn't have asked for things to go better,” Moore said. “Everything has fallen into place, and he has put himself in a position to pull off a historic win and achieve something that no other Irishman has ever done.”

“I will retire if I lose this fight.” — Carl Frampton

Frampton won his first world title at junior featherweight at home in Belfast in 2014 when he outpointed Kiko Martinez. Three successful defenses followed, including a title unification victory over England’s Scott Quigg in 2016.

Then Frampton vacated the belts and moved up to featherweight to outpoint Leo Santa Cruz in a tremendous battle in New York to claim a belt his second division. The victory clinched 2016 fighter of the year honors for Frampton, although he lost the title to Santa Cruz in their immediate rematch in January 2017.

Frampton has not held a world title since, although he claimed an interim belt against Nonito Donaire but also lost a decision to Josh Warrington for a full featherweight title in 2018. That prompted the move up to junior lightweight.

Frampton has won both of his fights in the 130-pound division, but was limited to just one fight in each of 2019 and 2020 due to injuries and the coronavirus pandemic.

The fight with Herring has been delayed multiple times. It was initially penciled in for mid-2020 but delayed due to the pandemic and then was eyed for Dec. 19 before being delayed again because Herring suffered a scratched cornea in a Sept. 5 defense against Jonathan Oquendo. Then it was targeted for January before being scheduled for Feb. 27 in London. However, financial issues and a Frampton hand injury forced it to be delayed until Saturday.

“I was able to stay focused with all the postponements because I had that motivation and hunger. I know this is still a big fight. I didn't want to let it go,” Herring said. “Yes, a win over Frampton would be a career-defining milestone. You want to win a world title. OK, we win the world title. Well, what's next? We had to successfully defend our title to be considered a real champion. I'm getting to the conversation of, ‘Oh, you want to face the other champions and the other big names,’ and Carl Frampton is a two-division world champion. He has done great things in his career.”

With the fight finally here, Frampton (28-2, 16 KOs), 34, is putting even more pressure on himself by saying at this week’s news conference that if he loses he’s done boxing, quite the opposite end of the spectrum of making the history he has talked about.

“I will retire if I lose this fight, because I want to be involved in big fights,” said Frampton, who has been in Dubai for three weeks. “After the Warrington defeat I made a promise to my wife and kids that I believed I could win a world title again. That’s what I wanted to do. That’s I believed I could achieve. The reason I carried on after the Warrington fight is because I believed I could do it.

“If I lose to Jamel Herring, I don’t want to have to go around the houses to get into a position to fight another champion again and be in this game for three years waiting on a fight. To be honest, I can’t speak for Jamel, but I think whoever loses this fight probably retires. We’re not the youngest guys in the world, anymore. It’s just me being honest.”

Herring (22-2, 10 KOs), 35, a southpaw from Coram, New York, will be making his third defense of the title he won from Masayuki Ito in May 2019. Although Herring has the utmost respect for Frampton, he does not share his thoughts of retirement.

“I don’t really look at what happens after the fight, win, lose or draw,” Herring said, joking that when he has been out and about in Dubai people call him “Obama” due to his resemblance to former President Barack Obama. “For me, I just feel good about everything that’s going on. I haven’t got to that (retirement) stage.

“But I will say that with everything that Carl has done in his career, I think either way, he’ll go down as one of the greats and that’s why I wanted to get in the ring with him. But for me, I still feel like I have so much to prove before I do walk away from boxing. But this is my moment. This is a big fight for me. I’m honored to have it.”

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Also on the card

The ESPN+ stream begins at 2 p.m. ET with three preliminary bouts: lightweight prospect Keyshawn Davis vs. Richman Ashelley in a six-rounder and two 10-rounders, former four-division titlist Donnie Nietes vs. Pablo Carrill at junior bantamweight and junior middleweight Tursynbay Kulakhmet vs. Heber Rondon.

The main card follows at 4 p.m. ET beginning with the co-feature: Zhankosh Turarov vs. Tyrone McKenna in a 10-rounder for Turarov’s regional junior welterweight title.

Photo: MTK Global