
Best super-bantamweights on a mega-fight collision course




Carl Frampton is intent on punishing IBF mandatory challenger Chris Avalos for a perceived lack of respect. Avalos arrived in Belfast intent on stoking up the tension with a bit of trash talk. Frampton was not amused by the American’s antics but unsurprised by his crude attempts at engaging in psychological warfare.





“Big Tony Bellew over there will tell you that Liverpool fans are the best but they aren’t, Belfast fans are!” yelled Carl Frampton shortly after settling down on the ring apron to speak with BoxNation TV. Bellew, commentating at ringside for BBC Five Live, was no doubt grinning away as the diminutive Frampton hollered across the ring. No animosity was intended from the jubilant newly-crowned world champion, still on a high after posting the finest win of his career to date.
The questions at the post-fight press conference were firing back and forth, thick and fast, as journalists and Team Cyclone collectively came down from the world title-winning high that had finished just minutes earlier. On more than one occasion Barry McGuigan was quizzed on how far his young charge could go. The former world champion has always said that ‘The Jackal’ had the potential to surpass his own ring achievements and then some. This, he said, was the first step on that road. There were strong suggestions that Frampton could go down as the greatest Irish boxer of all time.