By Brendan Galbraith: Tucked away in an upstairs room in the iconic Ulster Hall Belfast, there was a larger than usual turn out for today’s press conference to announce the latest Barry McGuigan promotion that will be shown live on Setanta Ireland. No doubt, an extra row of seats were filled due to the strong pull of the McGuigan brand – courtesy of the many epic fistic displays of the Clones Cyclone during the golden era for Irish boxing in Belfast in the 1980s.
However, McGuigan’s old stomping ground of the Ulster Hall, is now the gladiatorial home of protégé – Carl ‘The Jackal’ Frampton, who added value to his currency with a methodical dismantling of former European Title contender Yuriy Voronin in three one-sided rounds in his first headlining show last month.
Frampton returns to the Ulster Hall on December 3 to contest the Celtic super-bantamweight title against tough Aberdeen native, Gavin Reid. Reid (6-7-1) will provide a stern test to Frampton and has shown his durability by extending prospect Stephen Smith the full scheduled eight rounds, lasting nine rounds with top prospect, Scott Quigg, before getting stopped on cuts. So, how Frampton fares with Reid will be another benchmarking exercise with his domestic rival, Scott Quigg.
However, Frampton is not looking beyond his fight with Reid and cautions that he will be in with a tough opponent in December 3:
“My fight with Gavin Reid will be a more competitive fight than Voronin. Gavin is tough, he is a hungry fighter, he has done ten rounds (got stopped in the 9th round of a scheduled ten rounder against Scott Quigg in his last fight) – so he is a bit fresher than Voronin. He is going to be there and he is going to be coming to win.”
Frampton, has clearly run his eye over opponent, Reid and observed key differences with Reid and his last two opponents Voronin and Ian Bailey:
“There is a bit of a difference, he (Reid) is a bit taller than both of them (Voronin and Bailey), he has longer levers. Voronin could punch, but Gavin can punch as well and can take a shot as well. He is fit and he is fresher than Voronin. He has eight weeks to train for this fight and he will be very fit and will be coming over here to win and he will be believing that in his head – that he wants to do a job.”
“There is a title on the line and if he wins this fight it shoots him up the rankings a bit and people will stand up and take notice of Gavin Reid. It is going to be a good fight.”
Frampton revealed that he will be travelling to England soon to take up an offer from promoter and manager, Spencer Fearon, to spar with his Mongolian Warrior, Choi Tseveenpurev.
Frampton has previously sparred Choi and is looking forward to sharing the ring again with exciting Mongolian warrior:
“That just shows you, that if these boys are looking me – that is good for my confidence”. Frampton added that he only took one week off after his last fight against Voronin and has already got two weeks training under his belt.
Frampton’s vastly experienced trainer, Gerry Storey, noted the learning experiences that Frampton had benefited from in his last two fights:
“He came away with the experience of trying out new tactics – that paid off. People thought he was going to have problems boxing a southpaw (Voronin) – you seen the way he handled a southpaw and he made him look so ordinary. He took him apart and is improving all the time.”
“I think his performance proved that he can adapt to opponents and we haven’t seen the best of Carl yet because the better the opponent the bigger he is going to rise. He can switch tactics inside a round. If things aren’t working right we can switch in a round and you know he can do what you are going to ask him to do. That’s the secret with him. He is a dedicated kid.”
In addition to technical improvements in Frampton’s game, there was the added pressure of topping a bill for the first time in front of his home fans, on McGuigan’s first promotion and on the first edition of the six-fight deal with Setanta TV.
Storey enthused that he was impressed at how well Frampton handled this addition pressure:
“They will always have that bit of nervousness, I don’t care who they are and what champions we have had right down the line from flyweights to heavyweights – they have always had that bit of nervousness in them. But what we learned was what he was like and how he could adapt to that. And he adapted 100% to that, from the entrance when he came in and when the crowd was there, he adapted to that.
“He held his cool when he boxed, he made the openings and hurt his opponent. He didn’t fall apart, he didn’t get too excited. He just kept it at the tempo and kept to what we wanted him to do and that is were we learned that he could do that. He held his composure and he made it look very easy.”
Also on the promotion are two Lurgan fighters, Welterweight Stephen Haughian who will be looking to add to his resounding comeback win and all action puncher, light middleweight Ryan Greene. Talented Belfast flyweight Jamie Conlan will be in action and the English due of Troy James and Chris Keane return to the Ulster Hall. Belfast flyweight Luke ‘Winky’ Wilton may also be added to the card.
The fight will be screened live on Setanta Ireland for Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland viewers. www.setanta/ie
It will also be screened live on Premier Sports for English, Welsh and Scottish viewers. www.premiersports.tv
Ticketing information will announced shortly.