Frampton now has the world at his feet
And yet a punch so powerful that it has turned two worlds upside down, the world of new European super-bantamweight champion Carl Frampton, whose star is now very much on the rise, and the world of the man he dethroned, Spain’s Kiki Martinez.
It came after two minutes and 46 seconds of round nine, a straight right hand from the increasingly dominant Frampton, and for the first time in his long professional career Martinez found himself on his back. To his credit — and his courage was never in doubt — Martinez got to his feet but he couldn’t beat the count, still staggering across the ring even as the ref reached ten.
He never saw it coming, knew nothing about it then or after, but in that at least he had something in common with the man who threw it. Reacting to a suggestion that it may well have been the perfect punch, Frampton raised a few chuckles with his reply. “I can’t really remember much about the punch, to be honest. Looking at him afterwards he tried to get up but stumbled across the ring so it was a decent shot, but I can’t remember it.”
His manager, former world champion Barry McGuigan, didn’t know a whole lot more about it: “I saw it but it was like lightning; Carl went one/two, step back, bang, right hand — dynamite shot. I don’t think anyone has ever dropped that guy before, let alone knock him out with one punch. And it was only half a shot, hit him right in the middle of the face, knocked him out. This guy has concrete in his fists and when he lands a punch — and I see this in training every day — I go ‘Shit!’.”
It was a fitting end to what was an explosive fight on an explosive evening. The Odyssey was indeed a memorable place to be on Saturday if you happened to be a local, and most of those both outside and inside the ring were, and vocally so, the roof lifting to the strains of the new anthem, ‘Stand up for the Ulsterman!’ on several occasions during Carl’s inspiring performance.
In so many ways everything was set up for an upset, shades of a few years ago in Dublin’s Point when an equally acclaimed local favourite, Bernard Dunne, met this same Kiko Martinez on what was to be an evening of celebration; as we all now know, didn’t turn out like that.
Aware of that threat, and refusing to rise to the over-obvious weigh-in taunts from Martinez, for the first five rounds Frampton was content to fight on the defensive (a winning tactic, let it be said), until such time as he felt he had found the measure of his man.
“I listened to my corner and the plan was to box him from the outside from the start. I was maybe giving away too much ground, moving a little bit too much, I could have tried to hold the centre a little bit more, but we can rectify that.”
Shane McGuigan, Frampton’s C cornerman and trainer, son of Barry, then explained the thinking behind the tactic. “The thing about Kiko is that to use his power he has to set his feet and every time he did that, he was very predictable; Carl just offset him by stepping back or moving. He did a little too much moving at one stage and Kiko started throwing that right hook over the top, cut Carl on the eye and I thought, now is the time to stand in with him. He (Carl) did exactly what he said he’d do, he said he’d outbox him and outfought him, and I think he did that.”
Indeed he did, and gave Belfast a night to remember in the process. Now? The world at his feet, says promoter Eddie Hearn.
“A lot has opened up over the last few weeks. I’ve just emailed the IBF and told them, an unbelievable night in Belfast.
“The performance obviously matters but when you’ve got the backing Carl’s got here that does make a difference in terms of what the governing bodies think of you.
“After the IBF title fight next week they will put out a final eliminator for the mandatory challenger position — I expect us to be in position to be nominated for that.”
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