Carl Frampton looks to add to his resume as he challenges Josh Warrington for the IBF Featherweight title on Saturday 12/22/18 at the Manchester Arena in England.
Carl Frampton is the pride of Northern Ireland, being its first fighter and the second from Ireland to win a major world title in two different weight classes. The Jackal unified the WBA (Super) and IBF Super Bantamweight titles from 2014-2016 before moving up in weight to capture the WBA (Super) Featherweight title from 2016-2017. For his feat, Frampton was named as Fighter of the Year by Ring, Boxing Writers Association of America and ESPN.
The 31 year old Frampton stands 5-5 with a reach of 62 inches. The Jackal is an athletic fighter who has fast hands and serious punching power in both hands. Frampton is an excellent inside boxer who lands heavy body shots that wear down his opponents as the fight goes on. Frampton though only has two knockout wins in his last seven fights but while part of that was his move up in weight, it’s also because he’s developed into a complete boxer who doesn’t necessarily have to knock his opponent out to win fights.
Carl Frampton vs Josh Warrington
Moneyline Odds: Frampton -192, Warrington +167
Over/Under Odds: Over 9.5 -448, Under 9.5 +373
Odds from betonline.ag as of 12/21/18
28 year old Josh Warrington is a former English, Commonwealth and British featherweight title holder. After defeating former world champion Kiko Martinez to retain his WBC international featherweight belt, Warrington faced Dennis Ceylan for the IBF featherweight title eliminator. Warrington knocked out Ceylan in 10 rounds to earn the right to challenge Lee Selby for the world title.
The 5-7 Warrington fights out of the orthodox stance, has good movement, very fast hands and solid defense. These qualities allow him to put together serious punch combinations without putting himself at risk. The knack about Warrington though is his lack of punching power as he only has a 22% knockout rate. But while he doesn’t have the pop that some of the elites have, his high work rate makes up for that most of the time.
This is going to be a barnburner given the reputation of these two combatants. As usual expect Warrington to start like a house on fire and try to overwhelm Frampton with his speed and volume. Frampton meanwhile would like a slower paced fight where he can pick his spots and land his big body punches that will wear down his opponent. It’s not that Frampton can’t keep up with Warrington but the Jackal would not want to risk losing rounds on points by fighting the style of his younger and bigger opponent.
I think Warrington gives Frampton some problems early on. But the Jackal is such an intelligent fighter that he’s going to figure out his opponent as the first wears on. The longer this goes, the more Frampton should get stronger. The problem for Warrington here is that he doesn’t have the firepower to take out the Jackal early.
We’re picking Carl Frampton to win by late stoppage or decision. With the over/under bets priced higher than the moneyline odds, the best bet here is to go for Frampton at his moneyline price of -192.
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