But on the same night, Belfast bruiser Frampton had a nasty shock on the way to retaining his IBF title over Alejandro Gonzalez Jr in El Paso.
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Also on the card, lightweight titlist Darleys Perez (32-1, 20 KOs), 31, of Colombia, makes his first defense when he takes on Manchester’s Anthony Crolla (29-4-2, 11 KOs), 28. In round three, Gonzalez was docked a point for a low blow.
After the fight, Frampton said he was “disappointed with his display”. Although the 28-year-old bounced back off the canvass to steady himself and intelligently and expertly force his way into the fight and then into a position of utter dominance from which he claimed a unanimous victory, the knockdowns were all that Frampton could think of afterwards.
But it was a different story in the waning seconds of the opening round when Gonzalez clocked Frampton with a hard overhand right behind the ear. Frampton and his manager Barry McGuigan will likely push hard to get the fight done because once Frampton moves up to 126, he faces some real tests that could result in him getting beaten several times.
But his work-rate and the quality of his punches became more accentuated as Gonzalez, who had not been beyond 10 rounds in his career, began to tire slightly. I don’t know if it’s one that can be successfully negotiated though because it looks like Frampton wants the bigger cut of the purse. “Obviously, people back home in the United Kingdom and Ireland, boxing fans and sports fans, they know a little bit about me”.
In the headliner boxing match, Carl “The Jackal” Frampton vs Alejandro Gonzalez Jr., Gonzalez came out very aggressively against the champ, trying to show he was a worthy challenger.
“It’s just levels really, and I am at a better level than Alejandro Gonzalez Jr“.
I look for Frampton to land many power punches and win this fight in knockout.
Frampton, however, hinted in Texas that his days in the division may be numbered.
“I wasn’t feeling too good afterwards though, I had to get some nachos to calm myself down”. “I don’t want to make excuses”. I play by the rules and this was disappointing.
And Rigondeaux took to Twitter to say that after Saturday’s title fight, Frampton had earned a fight against him. In the co-feature, popular American heavyweight Chris Arreola fought to a grueling majority draw against Cameroon native Fred Kassi.
It would be a tough fight for Frampton, to be sure.
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One judge scored the fight 96-94 in favor of Arreola while the two other judges had it 95-95. I showed my heart. Kassi, 230 lbs of Cameroon is 18-3-1. He had to dig deep and he got through it and I suppose that’s what champions do – it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him down.
