Carl Frampton returns to the ring for the first time since losing against Leo Santa Cruz back in January. He takes on Mexico’s Horacio Garcia at the Odyssey in Belfast on Saturday night and “The Jackal” needs a big, convincing performance in this one, especially with the eyes of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez watching on from ringside as he supports his fellow countryman Garcia.
Frampton’s loss to Leo Santa Cruz was the first loss of his professional career and the Northern Ireland star is the massive odds-on favourite at 1/100 with bet365 to collect a win in this one. It certainly won’t be the toughest opponent that Frampton has ever met, but now this is just a rebuilding process to get back to the top.
There is no belt, nothing at stake in this one other than a reset victory that Frampton needs. After that majority decision defeat to Santa Cruz, Frampton is now 23-1 in his career record with fourteen knockouts in that sequence. Frampton can be backed at 4/9 with bet365 to win by KO TKO or Disqualification on Saturday night in what is a big bill in Belfast.
Frampton believes that the presence of Alvarez will just heap more pressure on Garcia instead of him. Alvarez lost that epic famous bout against Gennady Golovkin just back in September, suffering his first professional fight of his career.
Garcia holds a professional career record of 33-3-1 from his 37 fights and he is just a bit of a journeyman more than anything not really ever looking close to getting to the top of the sport. His big success was winning the WBC World Super Bantamweight title back in 2010. He has had a busy year though as this will be his fight of 2017.
He rattled off wins over Josu Veraza and Fernando Vargas in the first half of the year, the latter on the big stage at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. He then suffered a loss against Diehl Olguin in July before getting revenge over the same opponent in mid-September with a TKO. He must know that he is being used as nothing more than a stepping stone by Frampton and Garcia is massive 16/1 underdog at bet365.
Frampton, of course, has bigger plans. He really wants another crack at Leo Santa Cruz as it is one each between the two fighters now. The Other name that Frampton has mentioned as a target is Lee Selby but first things first, he needs to rebuild confidence with a positive win in this one. He’ll likely deliver it too and Frampton can finish this under 7.5 rounds for a quote of even money easily.
