Carl Frampton foresees ‘incredible’ year for Irish boxers

Carl Frampton believes his proposed clash with Herring will be just one of a number of major fights for Irish boxing in 2020.

The former two weight world title challenger feels the likes of Tommy McCarthy, Anthony Cacace, James Tennyson et all could make their mark in what could be a sensational year – and that’s without considering possible Olympic success.

2019 wasn’t the best of 12 months for ‘The Jackal’, but for Irish boxing as a whole it wasn’t too bad. Katie Taylor unified the lightweight division, became only the countries third two weight world champ and continued to change the face of female boxing.

Dennis Hogan challenged for world titles at light middle and middleweight, Jono Carroll also dined at the top table when challenging Tevin Farmer for the IBF super featherweight world title and a host of Irish fighters progressed toward the world stage.

Belfast played host to over 10 fight nights the most successful of which was Michael Conlan’s Falls Park Feile foray.

‘Spike’ O’Sullivan got the new year off to a relatively positive start when he put in a brave performance against Jaime Munguia in the first DAZN headline of 2020.

Luke Keeler could make it a January never forgotten if he upsets Demterius Andrade in Miami on January 30 to claim the WBO middleweight world title.

Not to mention Frampton looks set to challenge Jamel Herring for his WBO super featherweight title in Belfast in May and Michael Conlan is strongly rumoured to have a world title fight lined up for his Feile return.

Frampton believes there will be more to look forward to than that and can forsee the likes of newly crowned British champion Anthony Cacace and EU cruiserweight hopeful Tommy McCarthy making world moves this year.

“Apart from me, Michael Conlan is almost certainly going to be fighting for a version of the world featherweight title at some point this summer and then you have Tommy McCarthy and Anthony Cacace in great positions as well,” Frampton wrote in his Sunday Life column.

“Tommy and Anto realistically could be only one big win away from a shot at the world cruiserweight and super-featherweight titles respectively, because they are now world ranked. You also have Luke Keeler fighting for a world title this month while James Tennyson and Sean McComb are making very good progress on the domestic scene at lightweight and light-welterweight.

“2020 has the potential to be incredible for Irish boxers – and I will be ready to play my part.”