Carl Frampton tops Sky Sports World Champion poll

Carl Frampton has emerged in top position in a Sky Sport’s poll asking who is the best of the UK’s current 13 World Champions.

The Belfast man won the WBA featherweight title last month, travelling to New York and defeating Leo Santa Cruz at the Barclays Centre.

With ‘The Jackal’ now heavily in the public consciousness, he edged out Matchroom PPV-selling machine Anthony Joshua in a poll of almost 400,000 voters.

Also featured on the list is former Irish champion and current heavyweight king Tyson Fury who comes in in fifth position.

Frampton himself believes that Fury should be in top spot, and explained to Sky Sports that “Ant Crolla would have been in with a shout because of what he’s done and how he did it and of course the back story. Obviously Joshua is appealing to the casuals and, even though he’s a world champion, we know there’s more to come from AJ,”

“But it’s hard to look past big Fury. He beat the man. He beat Klitschko and became the unified heavyweight champion of the world.”

The Tigers Bay puncher was delighted with the result nonetheless, noting how “I am happy with that and it means a hell of a lot to me,”

“My win was probably fresh in people’s memory because it just happened, so that will account for some of the votes, but so many people voting for me – with some great fighters in there like Tyson Fury and Kell Brook – that’s nice.”

The results of the poll are as follows
1 – Carl Frampton – WBA featherweight
2 – Anthony Joshua – IBF heavyweight
3 – Kell Brook – IBF Welterweight
4 – Anthony Crolla – WBA Lightweight
5 – Tyson Fury – WBA & WBO Heavyweight
6 – James DeGale- IBF Super Middleweight
7 – Lee Selby – IBF Featherweight
8 – Tony Bellew – WBC Cruiserweight
9 – Liam Smith – WBO Light Middleweight
X – Jamie McDonnell – Bantamweight – No title
10 – Ricky Burns – WBA Light Welterweight
11 – Billy Joe Saunders – WBO Middleweight
12 – Terry Flanagan – WBO Lightweight
13 – Lee Haskins – IBF Bantamweight