Ciarán Gallagher reports from Manchester
CARL FRAMPTON SUGGESTED that he is unlikely to grant Scott Quigg a rematch after breaking his rival’s jaw in their world-title unification grudge fight on Saturday night in Manchester.
Belfast native Frampton became the first Irish fighter to unify world titles belts in the ‘alphabet’ title era as he took the IBF and WBA world super-bantamweight championships following his split-decision points win over Bury’s Quigg.
Frampton dominated the first half of the bout, which seemed like it would fail to live up to the pre-fight Sky Box Office hype before a late Quigg surge made it a closer contest.
Despite the fact that one judge delivered a curious 115-113 score in favour of Quigg, Frampton remained composed and endured some big shots to the head and body late on to claim what was, overall, a clear win.
Frampton insisted that the bout went as he expected afterwards but suggested that he isn’t too keen on a rematch if bigger fights elsewhere can be made.
“I’m happy to have a rematch if the public demand it and it’s viable, but there’s other options and I’d rather move on to bigger and better things now,” said Frampton in the post-fight press conference.
I knew it was going to be a boring fight to be honest, but you can’t really say that when it’s a pay per view! It opened up at the end, but I didn’t think it was close,” added the newly unified champion.
“That’s very nice… I am the best,” joked Frampton after being praised by manager Barry McGuigan that he is the “best-ever Irish boxer” and told that he is the first first Irishman to unify titles in one weight in the ‘alphabet’ era of titles.
“Obviously it’s nice to hear nobody else has done it before,” continued a visibly delighted Frampton when informed of his historic achievement. “It’s an honour really,” he added.
Quigg claimed afterwards that a Frampton uppercut at the end of the fourth round broke his jaw and had a major impact on his approach to the bout, although he is keen to travel to Frampton’s hometown of Belfast for an immediate rematch if the injury is not too bad.
“I thought the first four or five rounds were like a bit of a chess match. I felt in control, he was probably bit busier [early on] but he wasn’t catching me with anything,” said the Bury man.
“At the end of the fourth round he caught me with a peach of an uppercut that done my jaw,” continued Quigg.
Maybe I left it a bit late [to pressure Frampton]… One of the judges gave it to me and I felt very comfortable in the first four or five rounds but it was whatever you like – two of the judges liked him and one liked me,” he added.
