Back from the scrapheap – Frampton credits Jamie Moore’s training ahead of title return

Josh Warrington isn’t the only fighter in the eagerly anticipated December 22nd IBF featherweight world title clash who is motivated by doubters.

The champion has said he is ready to give two fingers to those who continue to question him going into his first defence even after he upset Lee Selby to become a beltholder.

However, despite been tipped by most to emerge victorious from the BT Sport Box Office bout at the Manchester Arena, Carl Frampton, the other half of the match-up, claims doubters have also fueled his fire.

The former-two weight world champion noted how people wrote him off after he lost his WBA featherweight title and rematch with Leo Santa Cruz in January of 2017 and questioned whether he could rise again after a turbulent 2017 which saw him change teams following an acrimonious split with the McGuigans.

Following three quickfire wins, ‘The Jackal’ has been handed the chance to go into 2019 with a world title buckled around his waist and unification possibilities on the table.

It means the Belfast fighter goes into the Warrington clash with a massive carrot dangling in front of him but the belt not the only thing motivating him.

“A year ago, I was written off, I was on the scrap heap,” he told the Daily Mail.

“I knew that I could get back and fight for world titles again, so a lot of the motivation now is the doubters and the people that say: ‘You’re done, it’s over’.”

There are those who suggested Frampton was on the way down after he lost his return with Mexican Leo Santa Cruz,  but the former WBA featherweight and IBF-WBA super bantam champ claims he is now feeling fitter and more importantly fresher than ever.

The fighter who will go down as one of Ireland’s all time greats, claims he is training smarter rather than harder after switching from Shane McGuigan to Jamie Moore and believes he is reaping the reward.

“I was injured a lot more, I felt like I was being run into the ground and it’s different now… every single day, every single session was hard,” he recalls of his time at the McGuigan’s Gym in London.

Now training at the VIP Gym in Manchester as well as getting in plenty of altitude work – whether it be in artificial chambers or in Tenerife, Frampton can see he difference.

‘The Jackal’ described how “until you come out of that environment and you know you can train smarter and don’t have to kill yourself every day in the gym, you don’t really understand it.”

“So I was just constantly injured, hurt, waking up in the morning going, “F***, another a day at the gym’. Not excited ever about a training session… It was just a hard slog.”