Carl Frampton says he’s above Josh Warrington talent-wise

By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Frampton (26-1, 15 KOs) doesn’t see IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington (27-0, 6 KOs) on his level despite him recently improving his game and capturing the International Boxing Federation 126 pound title.

Warrington and Frampton are expected to fight each other in late 2018. There still isn’t a date and location for the fight. Frampton, who holds the interim WBO 126 pound title, is anxious to face Warrington so that he can unseat him as the IBF title. Frampton sees Warrington as an easy mark, and he wants his WBO title so that he can face WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez in a unification fight.

“I said going into the (Luke) Jackson fight — that I am a level above Warrington,” Frampton said

So there it is. Frampton bragging about being better than Warrington. Does this mean anything? Why isn’t Frampton saying he’s better than Oscar Valdez and Gary Russell Jr?

The 27-year-old Warrington has beaten these fighters in his last 6 bouts since 2015:

– Lee Selby

– Dennis Ceylan

– Kiko Martinez

– Patrick Hyland

– Higashi Amagasa

– Joel Brunker

Warrington has been winning, but he’s not been fighting the cream of the featherweight division. Let’s face it; Warrington has been fighting soft touches. Yeah, it was good that Warrington beat the brakes off Selby, but he was weight drained and looked beaten before the first punch was thrown. Selby should have moved up to super featherweight two years ago. It’s understandable why he didn’t make the move, because those guys would have too much power and talent for him, but that’s clearly where he belongs now.

Frampton, 31, isn’t impressed with Warrington’s recent 12 round split decision victory over Lee Selby from last May. Frampton points out that the 31-year-old Selby was weight drained for that fight. Selby hadn’t been looking in his recent fights, which led to him losing to Warrington.

“It has to be realized that Warrington’s best win has been against a weight-drained (Lee) Selby,” Frampton said. Warrington still couldn’t get rid of him and I would also look back to the trouble he had with Kiko Martinez, who was done. I would say that some people see it as a more difficult fight than maybe they first thought a year ago, including myself, mainly because of the fact he has beaten Selby.”

Frampton has a 3-fight winning streak since losing to Leo Santa Cruz in 2017. Frampton looked good in stopping his last opponent Luke Jackson in the 9

th round this month on August 18 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Frampton has been winning lately, but he’s been facing the lesser guys just like Warrington. They’ve both in the same boat in terms of the opposition they’ve been facing. Frampton has had it easy lately in beating Luke Jackson, Nonito Donaire and Horacio Garcia. There’s a bit of disagreement about who deserved the win in the Frampton-Garcia fight, as it appeared that Horacio took over the fight in the second half of the contest. Garcia dropped Frampton in the 7th round and had him looking shaky in rounds 8, 9 and 10.

“It would be a huge moment for me to become world champion again having been written off by so many people after the loss to Leo Santa Cruz and everything else I’ve been through over the past couple of years,”Frampton said.

I wouldn’t get so excited if I were Frampton if he beats Warrington. Josh still hasn’t faced any of the lions in the division for Frampton to be getting worked up about fighting him. Until Warrington proves himself against the best, he can’t be considered one of the elite fighters in the division. Frampton is going to fight Warrington anyway without him proving himself against Oscar Valdez, Leo Santa Cruz, Gary Russell Jr. and Mark Magsayo. There’s too much money for Frampton to make in fighting Warrington, and the title that he wins off him will help him get a better financial deal when he sits down to negotiate a fight with Top Rank for a unification match against Oscar Valdez in 2019.