Tuesday 23 February 2016

Frampton vs Quigg: A Preview


A massive week in British boxing has just kicked off with Carl ‘the Jackal’ Frampton fighting Scott Quigg for the unified WBA (super) and IBF super-bantamweight titles. The build-up to this fight has been unbelievable and every boxing fan out there will be praying that the fight can live up to its billing. The two are set to lock horns on Saturday in a fight that has been in the making for four and a half years.

Bookies slight favourite, Carl Frampton, has had an unbelievable career so far. He, single-handily, has managed to sell out arenas in Northern Ireland which is extremely impressive considering he is a super-bantamweight and managed to win the IBF world title in only his 19th fight beating Kiko Martinez in a unanimous decision. Now currently 21-0, the fighter from Northern Ireland will be looking to give Quigg a boxing lesson come fight night.

Scott Quigg has had a relatively quiet career up until this point. He is currently undefeated on 31-0-2, and had arguably not fought the calibre of fighters that Frampton had fought against until he stopped Kiko Martinez in the second round back in July. The questions hanging over Quigg's head is whether he can make the step up in class required and whether he can deal with the pressure of being in a huge fight.

Some pundits have claimed that 2015 was the year where the tide turned in Quigg’s favour after Frampton got dropped twice in the first round by Mexican, Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. out in the US who then went on to lose his next fight against a relative nobody.

There is no doubt that Quigg and his team have had the better of Frampton in the build-up to this fight and it very much has the feeling of Froch-Groves 1 where Groves’ supreme confidence really offset Froch that night. However the difference is that Frampton is not taking Quigg as lightly as Froch did with Groves and in my opinion Frampton has the beating of Quigg.

Frampton’s all-round boxing ability is in a different league to Quigg’s. He can box on the back-foot far better, his ring IQ is superior and he has the ability to make adjustments in the ring which Quigg simply will not be able to do as well. There is always the danger that Frampton could walk onto one of Quigg’s power punches however in my opinion he is just too smart and cute to do that.

Prediction: Frampton on points

Tom Eckett

@boxingguru44


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