Warrington v Frampton Preview – December 22nd, 2018 at 10.00 pm
There is a big night of Boxing on Saturday with the highlight being the rematch between Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora. But there is another big title showdown happening on the night as Josh Warrington defends his crown against Carl Frampton.
Josh Warrington v Carl Frampton Odds*
Carl Frampton 4/9
Josh Warrington 7/4
Draw 20/1
*(betting odds taken from Ladbrokes on December 20th, 2018 at 5:58 pm)
Josh Warrington will be putting his IBF world featherweight title on the line on Saturday. This will be the first title defence of his career. The Leeds fighter took a great points victory over Lee Selby at Elland Road back in the summer to grab the title. Warrington had been underdog for the fixture.
Warrington holds an unbeaten record in 27 bouts, winning six of those by a knockout. Even though he was up against the highly-touted Derby this year, this bout against Frampton will see him step up several levels in class of opposition. Will he be able to handle the threat of his opponent?
Northern Ireland’s Frampton lost a big scrap in the defence of his WBO super featherweight title against Leo Santa Cruz in January 2017. That was a big blow in his career and he has had to work his way back into contention for titles. Frampton has won all three of his fights since the duel with Santa Cruz, picking up the WBO interim featherweight title along the way. But this is for the bigger immediate prize of the IBF featherweight crown.
The defeat against Santa Cruz is the only loss that Frampton has suffered in his professional career. He has won 15 of his fights via a knockout and has the clear punching power advantage over his opponent. Throw in the experience of such big fights and he will be stepping out at the Manchester Arena as favourite.
Prediction
The class of Frampton should play out here. He isn’t over the hill by any stretch of the imagination. We are going to back this to get the distance as Frampton has only the one knockout in his last seven bouts. Frampton to win by a decision is at 11/10 odds*(betting odds taken from Ladbrokes on December 20th, 2018 at 5:58 pm)
