McGuigan: Frampton will get Euro and Martinez shot again

By Jonny Stapleton

Barry McGuigan believes the Kiko Martinez Carl Frampton saga is far from over and predicts the duo will do battle at some stage in the future.

The Irish boxing legend and Frampton mentor also still see’s European title sucess in the ‘Belfast Boys’ not too distant future.

McGuigan admitted Martinez remorse, as the Spaniard with significant Irish previous having knocked out Bernard Dunne in a round pulled out of an EBU title fight with Frampton scheduled for this weekend.

The Clones Cyclone was confident his super bantamweight was going to prove those who doubted him wrong and beat the seasoned and dangerous performer in just his eleventh fight.

However, the former world champion, who is delighted his charge will challenge for the Mark Quon for the Commonwealth belt on Saturday night, is confident ‘The Jackal’ will get his chance to assassinate  ‘Mini Tyson’.

“We are disappointed we didn’t get the chance to prove Carl can beat Martinez, but we will get that fight down the line,” McGuigan told Mirror Sport.
“Carl will also get his hands on the European title in the future too. We would have loved to have fought Martinez, but he had to pull out and understandably so as his father was ill.”

After Martinez withdrew from the mouth watering match up promoters Matchroom tried to find an opponent who qualified to challenge for the EBU title to no avail.

But the fact the Eddie Hearn offered the bout to former European Champion Willie Casey and recent world title challenger Rendell Munroe proves how confident Team Frampton are in his ability, according to McGuigan.

“We offered the fight to Munroe but he hadn’t enough time to prepare. It is interesting all these guys are promising to knock Carl’s block off but when they are offered the fight they turn it down. Granted there seems to be valid reasons there and we don’t slag guys off, but Munroe was preparing for a fight in September anyway. People should at least know and understand we are willing to fight these guys and confident we can beat them.”