Frampton not looking past DANGEROUS Donaire

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Carl ‘The Jackal’ Frampton says he’s not looking past former 4 division world champion Nonito ‘The Filipino Flash’ Donaire in their fight on April 21 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Frampton’s main goal for 2018 is to beat the winner of the May 19th fight between IBF World featherweight champion Lee Selby and Josh Warrington. However, Frampton is saying that his fight with Donaire could be a WBO featherweight title eliminator. The winner of the Frampton-Donaire fight will be the mandatory challenger to the winner of the Oscar Valdez vs. Scott Quigg match. I think I speak for the boxing world when I say the fans would prefer to see Frampton face the Valdez-Quigg winnner than the Selby-Warrington winner.

(Photo credit: Mark Marlow)

Donaire looks in great shape right now. That’s not good for Frampton, because the only time Donaire has struggled in the past is when he’s come into his training camps overweight. Don’t be surprised if Donaire sparks Frampton out on April 21. Don’t say Gilfoid didn’t tell you so.

Frampton, 30, feels he can’t afford to look past the heavy-handed Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) towards that fight, even though that’s his target for this year. Frampton considers Selby and Warrington big names. Neither of them has ever beaten the good featherweights to earn the right to be called a big name by Frampton, but he still sees them as big names.

“Nonito Donaire is a future Hall of Famer, a fantastic fighter… I need fights like this to get up for and I need big names,” said Frampton.

Frampton can’t be viewed as a clear favorite to beat Donaire, because he’s not a natural featherweight, and he’s never beaten anyone in his career – without controversy – to show that he’s got the type of talent to win this fight. Frampton’s best wins of his 9-year pro career have come against these fighters:

• Kiko Martinez

• Steve Molitor

• Hugo Fdel Cazares – over-the-hill fighter

• Leo Santa Cruz – controversial decision win for Frampton. Many boxing fans thought he lost to Santa Cruz

• Scott Quigg – controversial decision win for Frampton. The fight appeared to be a draw rather than a win for Frampton

• Chris Avalos

• Horacio Garcia

• Alejandro Gonzalez Jr.

Frampton is going to have to fight out of his skin for him to defeat Donaire, because he has no advantages over him other than the fight taking place in Belfast. Donaire is not like a 35-year-old. He’s no like a fighter in his late 20s. I see Donaire as being younger than Frampton in terms of age. People age differently. Donaire is aging very, very slowly and still in his prime of his career. Donaire looks like he might be one of those Bernard Hopkins types of fighters that compete at an important level into his 40s. That’s sad news for Frampton, because he doesn’t possess the hand speed, power, reflexes, experience or the mobility that Donaire has going for him.

Donaire lost a controversial 12 round unanimous decision to the Top Rank promoted Jessie Magdaleno on November 5, 2016. Donaire fought well enough to deserve the win in that fight, but the judges gave it to Magdaleno. One of the judges for the Donaire-Magdaleno fight was Adalaide Byrd, who scored it 118-110 for Magdaleno. That’s the same score that she gave to Saul Canelo Alvarez in his 12 round draw against middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin last September. Donaire was knocked out by Nicholas Walters in the 6th round in their fight in October 2014. That was a shootout with both guys getting hurt. Walters was staggered first, but then he returned the favor and hurt Donaire and put him down. If Donaire had been a little cleverer, he could have out-boxed Walters the way Vasyl Lomachenko did instead of slugging with him. Walters had a big weight advantage over Donaire in that fight. Donaire used the wrong approach to try and win the fight. That much is clear.

“There’s a lot on the line,” said Frampton. “But these are all things that are in the future and there’s only one fight that I’m focused on at the minute.”