AS KIKO MARTINEZ stumbled, helpless, the packed Odyssey Arena crowd sprang to their feet as one; not to catch the crumpling Spaniard but to catch a glimpse of their new European champion.
They could hardly miss Carl Frampton. A winner’s grin spread wide across his face, he bounded up on to the ropes to celebrate the victory that, a few days shy of his 26th birthday, propels him into the elite of the super-bantamweight division.
Behind him Shane and Barry McGuigan, his trainer and his mentor, beamed. “People doubted him because he’s not experienced as a coach,” McGuigan Sr said of his young son afterwards, “but I thought his tactics were fabulous.”
And what of Belfast’s newest star? “A world-beater.”
This was the biggest night of Frampton’s career and he had support worthy of the occasion. The Odyssey Arena wasn’t quite a sell-out but it may as well have been. The wall of noise rolled down from the seats and carried their man through to the 16th win of his unbeaten professional career, a ninth-round stoppage of the gutsy Martinez.
If Belfast thought this was big, wait until they see what comes next. Immediately promoter Eddie Hearn talked about bringing a world title fight back here in May in the hope that either Alejandro Lopez or Jonathan Romero, who meet next week for the division’s vacant IBF belt, can be convinced.
A long-awaited showdown with Scott Quigg may yet happen but as Hearn reminded the Bury fighter, who watched from ringside, it is him who needs Frampton. After last night, Frampton no longer needs him.
This was an absorbing contest from the first bell. The verbal sparring earlier this week was little more than pantomime but when it was time to conduct the evening’s business, there was nothing but mutual respect between the two fighters.
As expected Martinez came hard in the opening rounds but Frampton was his match and, in the fourth, took control of the contest. He opened a cut around Martinez’s left eye; wounded, the Spaniard hit back with some fine counter-punching to steady the ship.
Frampton’s performance wasn’t flawless and on more than one occasion, he allowed Martinez to back him up onto the ropes and into the corners. It was here that the visitor looked most likely to crash the party but Frampton had the wits and guile to extricate himself without taking more punishment than necessary.
“He’s a big, big puncher,” the new champion reflected afterwards. “People had doubts about my chin and it just shows that I’ve got a solid chin. He’s one of the hardest punchers in the super-bantamweight division and I could take him all the way.”
All the while Frampton steadily picked off good, clean shots of his own and led 78-74, 78-74, 77-75 on the cards after eight rounds; on course for victory though not there yet.
When the knockout blow came, it was brutal in its finality. He caught Martinez flush with a thunderous right; it was followed with a left over the top for good measure but by that stage, the damage was done.
Martinez has 19 knockouts to his name but had never been stopped himself, his three previous losses all coming after fights which went the distance. In his heart, he couldn’t surrender but his head and legs had very different ideas and carried him away from Anssi Perajoki’s standing count until he slumped onto the ropes.
It was a win the home crowd desperately needed after watching another local boy, Martin Lindsay, outpunched but not outclassed in a unanimous decision defeat to Lee Selby, who retained his British and Commonwealth featherweight titles in the main fight on the undercard.
There was disappointment too for the sizable Dublin support who travelled north in hope of shock. Their man, Anthony Fitzgerald, gave Andy Lee plenty to think about in his first fight under new trainer Adam Booth. It was Lee’s first outing since losing his world middleweight title shot against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr last summer and though rusty, he took a 98-94 decision.
Elsewhere on the card there were wins for Jamie Conlan, Eamonn O’Kane, Martin Rogan, Callum Smith, James Fryers and Grzegorz Proksa.
