One of the most sought after fights for the fans, especially in the UK, is the clash between Northern Ireland’s IBF super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton and Bury native and WBA (reg) 122 lb champion Scott Quigg.
Both men go into battle separately this weekend, defending their respective world titles – Quigg fights former Frampton foe Kiko Martinez in Manchester, while Frampton heads to the US for the first time to fight Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Jr in El Paso, Texas on a PBC on CBS card (ITV in UK).
Ahead of his American debut, Frampton has said via The Daily Star that once he has dealt with Gonzalez, he is still interested in a Quigg fight, but feels the Englishman has essentially priced himself out of things, given it is “The Jackal” who is the full world champion – and not Quigg, who only holds a (regular) version of the WBA strap, the (super) version belongs to Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Frampton said;
“I hope the fight can get made with Quigg but you have to realise who is number 1.”
With negotiations for a fight between the rivals breaking down recently, Frampton has been keen to insist it is not for want of trying, believing he is the guy on the “A side” of any talks and the stance of Quigg and his promoters Matchroom is inflexible;
“They know what we want and it’s completely fair. If they want to bend a bit, then it can get done -but he has priced himself out of it a bit.”
“He (Quigg) needs to know who the boss is. I would like it to be done before the end of the year.”
Frampton turned down a flat 1.5 million pound offer with a 60/40 purse split to the winner, insisting that when PPV revenue etc was added he would potentially be earning LESS than Quigg according to projected revenue targets. He has since signed with influential ‘advisor’, Al Haymon.
All eyes will be on how Quigg performs against Martinez who was beaten twice by Frampton, the last time in September 2014, which saw him take the Spaniard’s world title via UD.
A loss for either man in the meantime will severely take the shine off of the sought-after domestic grudge-match, however.
Frampton v Gonzalez Jr will be screened on CBS/ITV in the UK.
Quigg v Martinez will be screened on Sky Sports, both this Saturday night.
Twitter @Undilutedpoison
