‘Weight and see!’ – Carl Frampton warns confident Josh Warrington
Carl Frampton has promised new IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington that he will be a completely different proposition to Lee Selby when the pair eventually meet.
Warrington dethrone Selby earlier this month to take the red belt but Frampton feels the Welshman was far below his best that night at Elland Road.
‘The Jackal’ notes how Selby was feeling the effects of being weight-drained – which contributed to Warrington’s success – and believes the Leeds fighter will not enjoy the same advantages when they eventually showdown.
Frampton, who moved to featherweight in 2016 following his well-documented struggles making the 122lbs super bantam limit, thinks he will be too strong for Warrington.
Writing in his weekly column for the Sunday Life, Frampton stated that “I am more convinced than ever that Warrington is made for me and I hope the fight is made as soon as possible.”
Looking back at the Selby-Warrington clash, for which he was a ringside analyst for both BT Sport and BBC Radio 5, the Belfast 31-year-old described how “I don’t want to take anything away from Warrington’s win because I expected him to lose and clearly, but Selby was dead at the weight and that was obvious from the start.”
“Even in the first round there was one point when Warrington threw him off like he was a rag doll. Selby wasn’t able to get set to throw a decent punch, there was nothing of any note coming back at Warrington so he was able to do what he wanted.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I give Warrington’s team all the credit in the world because they got the tactics spot on and I felt that the Selby team were a bit arrogant going into the fight.”
“It was so bad at times that he seemed like a novice because he was getting hit so often with left hooks and walking back in straight lines.”
“I was no surprise to me that Selby announced the next day that he would be moving up to super featherweight.”
Frampton, who has stated that he feels he could make super bantamweight now under the new training techniques of Jamie Moore, has warned Warrington that he will be in perfect condition when they eventually face off.
The Tiger’s Bay puncher reasoned that “while Warrington is going to gain a lot of confidence from his victory over Selby, when he comes to face me it will be a different proposition altogether.”
“He won’t be just walking through my punches the way he did with Selby.”
When this fight takes place is another matter.
It was hoped that the winner of Selby-Warrington would man the opposite corner to Frampton at Windsor Park in Belfast on August 18th but this was quickly ruled out.
Next Summer then looked to be the likely timeframe for the fight but common promoter Frank Warren has stated his intention to put the bout on this coming Winter.
