After two years of fighting away from home, Carl Frampton returns to Northern Ireland this Saturday in an effort to set himself up for another title shot. Mexico’s Andre Gutierrez might not be the immediate opponent that the fight world was clamoring for, but a win here for Frampton should set up a much bigger fight to close the year. This fight will now be available via a free, legal stream for the American audience as well.
Two division titlist Carl Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) won his first title in an otherwise senseless super bantamweight rematch with Kiko Martinez, a man he had comfortably stopped a year and a half earlier. The IBF ordered it though so it happened. He defended it three times before moving up. First, he met Chris Avalos in what seemed like it could be a good fight on paper. It was mostly one sided en route to a fifth round stoppage win.
Next, Frampton took what looked like a softer defense against lesser known Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. Frampton did win easily in the end, but he found himself on the the canvas twice in the first round. This victory led to the big, all British title unification showdown with Scott Quigg in February of last year. Though that fight unfortunately was a dud in the ring, commercially it was about as successful as two fighters can be at the weight anywhere in the world.
In June of last year, Carl Frampton came to the US to fighter featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz. In what was an excellent fight, Frampton narrowly won in Brooklyn to earn his second world title. They rematched this January, however, and Leo Santa Cruz did well to alter his tactics, narrowly winning his title back in a very close decision. A trilogy fight made a ton of sense, but boxing being what it is, that is not what we are getting. Santa Cruz was instead ordered to rematch Abner Mares.
Instead, Frampton is getting in line for a different title. Andres Gutierrez (35-1-1, 25 KOs) may look like a good opponent with that record, but the truth is that the young Mexican fighter’s slate is entirely empty. The one loss came against the one known opponent he has faced, a past his prime and way up in weight Cristian Mijares. He is not likely to be a threat to a world class fighter like Carl Frampton. What he is, however, is ranked highly enough by the WBC to sanction this as a title eliminator thanks to the minor belts he has collected from the organization.
If Frampton picks up the expected win here in his return to Northern Ireland, he will be in line to fight Gary Russell Jr for the WBC featherweight title. While this fight in itself isn’t something to get hyped for, his next fight likely will be. Whether it is the trilogy completer with Santa Cruz or a new matchup with Russell Jr, that is a big time fight.
Unfortunately, there is not a single significant undercard fight for this card. I guess for Frampton’s homecoming it isn’t necessary, but that does not make it any less disappointing. In good news, however, Showtime has elected to pick this fight up via a stream on their Facebook and Youtube pages. That begins at 5:30 Eastern. Local time in the UK, the fight will be at 10:10 on Channel 5.
