Carl Frampton finds peace and new avenues in retirement

By Matt Bozeat

TO the pensioners of Northern Ireland, he is “the wee man off the supermarket advert.”

“I won world titles at two weights,” said Carl Frampton, “and that’s what I get all the time.

“I did an advert for Spar that went on television in Northern Ireland and grannies always stop me and say: ‘You’re that wee man off the supermarket advert’.” 

Frampton is also behind Stablemate Whiskey – “I didn’t just put my name to it, I was involved in the whole process” – the coach of Carryduff Colts under-15s football team and a pundit and commentator for broadcasters TNT Sport.

He prefers punditry to commentary and prefers both to being a boxer.

“I’m a proud man and I wanted to be world champion,” said the 37-year-old when he chatted to Boxing News during the Paris Olympics. “But I never loved boxing.

“I loved fighting and I loved the big nights, but I was always looking to find a way out. I hated time away from my family and I dreaded going to the gym. Some people love it and I dreaded it.

“I did it to better my family’s life. I’m not the smartest. I was never going to get a corporate job. Boxing was the only thing I knew how to do well. I saw a way to make a comfortable life for my family.”

Frampton has achieved that and more and, while the grandmothers of Belfast recognise him for advertising a supermarket, those who stopped him around the Roland Garros Stadium during the Olympics only wanted to talk about his boxing career.

The question he gets asked most is: ‘What are your favourite fights from your career?’

Frampton, who won 28 of 31 fights, names three.

First is the rematch with Kiko Martinez for the IBF super-bantamweight title in September, 2014.

Frampton, nicknamed ‘The Jackal’, had sensed a lack of confidence in him from promoters Matchroom ahead of their first fight, for the European title 19 months earlier.

“I don’t think Matchroom were that keen on me,” he said. “They were thinking: ‘If he gets beat, we will drop him.’”

That was a possibility.

Though beaten twice by Rendall Munroe, Martinez was still dangerous and remembered by Irish fans for demolishing Bernard Dunne inside a round.

“In the build-up [to the first fight] he hated me and I hated him,” said Frampton.

“My dad said to tell him at the press conference: ‘You’re going to lose your title like you’re losing your hair’ and he went ballistic!

“He said something in Spanish and [agent] Joe Forbes wouldn’t translate it. He told me later he said: ‘If you shake your dick more than twice after going for a piss that makes you a wanker’.”

That left Frampton scratching his head and the fight didn’t turn out how he envisaged.

“I was told he would slow down after four rounds and he didn’t,” he said. “Mentally, it was hard.”

After eight rounds, Frampton led on all the cards and then brought the Spaniard onto a right hand in the ninth that dropped him in a heap.

“Sometimes you want them to get up so you can finish it properly,” said Frampton. “I was lying on the ropes exhausted, hoping he didn’t get up.

“He went on to win the world title [mauling Jonathan Romero in six rounds], but I was better than I was before when I fought him again.”

That was at a purpose-built 16,000-seater stadium in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.

“There was so much pressure,” said Frampton. “They build a stadium for you and the government backed it.

“I had already beaten him and they were thinking: ‘It will be an easy fight,’ but they didn’t know how difficult the first fight was.

“I was thinking: ‘This will be hard. I need to box well to beat him’.

“It turned out to be easier than the first fight. I was in control.”

The unanimous points win made Frampton a world champion, but he says it was a struggle with a skinny Mexican that opened doors for him.

Never down before, Frampton hit the canvas twice in the opening round of his second world-title defence, against the late Alejandro Gonzalez in El Paso in July, 2015. 

“I saw him around the hotel and he was tall and skinny,” said Frampton. “I was thinking: ‘I will go through him’.

“He hit me in the first and, for a split second, the lights went out.”

Frampton got through a foggy opening three minutes and says he was hit harder in the third – “I didn’t know where I was” – before pulling himself together to win unanimously.

On the same night, Scott Quigg was demolishing Martinez in two rounds in Manchester.

Frampton says his early struggle against Gonzalez encouraged Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz to fight him.

“Santa Cruz didn’t want it after I beat Hugo Cazares [a second round KO],” he said.

“I was his mandatory after that, but he got out of it.

“He saw me got dropped by a tall, skinny kid and then Quigg and Santa Cruz wanted to fight me.”

Frampton beat Quigg on points in front of a sold-out Manchester Arena and next he jumped up to featherweight to face Santa Cruz, his second favourite fight.

“He was a three-weight world champion and went on to win another,” said Frampton.

“I wasn’t meant to win. The US press were unanimous about that.

“It was my first fight up at featherweight and I think that helped. I was struggling at super-bantamweight and I had loads more energy. I needed it because of his work rate.

“The tactics were to stop him coming forward. I had to hit him hard early. I hit him in the second and the ropes held him up.”

There was to be no early finish.

“All the rounds were hard,” said Frampton.

“At the end of the fight, I felt I had done enough, but I wasn’t sure.”

Frampton won a deserved majority vote to become a two-weight world champion, to the delight of the 1,500 supporters who had followed him to New York.

The rematch went the other way.

“We didn’t think he could change his style much,” said Frampton. “We just thought he would try a bit harder. “But he kept it long, he was smart.”

Third in Frampton’s list of favourite fights is the points win over Nonito Donaire in Belfast in April, 2018.

The ‘Filipino Flash’ had conquered the world at four weights – flyweight to featherweight – and by the time Frampton fought him, the Irishman had split with the McGuigans and joined Jamie Moore and Nigel Travis.

“People think I was rubbish after I left Shane and Barry [McGuigan],” he said, “but that was one of my best performances.

“Shane and Barry did a lot for my career, but I would have done the same, possibly more, if I had been with Jamie and Nigel throughout my career.”

Donaire was far from finished, dropping two weight divisions to dethrone Ryan Burnett in his next fight and then pushing Naoya Inoue in 2022’s best fight, while Frampton went on to make a bid to become a three-weight world champion.

He challenged Jamel Herring for the WBO super-featherweight title in Dubai in April, 2021.

“It was an opportunity to become a three-weight world champion and I couldn’t turn it down,” said Frampton of his fight with Herring, a 35-year-old southpaw who towered over him by five inches at 5ft 10ins.

“I prepared really well,” said Frampton. “If I lost a round in sparring, I only lost a couple. I was flying, but when I sat down at the end of the first round I thought: ‘This is going to be a hard night.’ Normally my distance was good, but my feet and reactions were slow.”

Beaten in six rounds, Frampton retired and says there will be no more fighting Framptons in the foreseeable future.

He has children Carla (13), Rossa (nine) and Mila (18 months) with wife Christine and said: “Rossa and Carla have asked [about boxing], Carla more than Rossa.

“But they would be a big target. There would be too much pressure on them. I don’t want them to box.”

Frampton enjoys his television work following the careers of Moses Itauma – “The future of the heavyweight division,” Andrew Cain – “There’s something about him” – and Dennis McCann.

McCann emulated Frampton by becoming European super-bantamweight champion with a points win over Ionut Baluta at the O2 Arena last month.

Frampton said it was “a world-class performance in a European-title fight,” adding: “I would say it was the best performance by a British boxer this year, at least.

“He was top class against a very good fighter. He controls the distance so well, can read a fight, punches hard and can grit it out.

“He is the full package. I think he can be a star.”

TNT cameras captured Frampton celebrating after seeing Anthony Cacace rip the IBF super-featherweight title off Joe Cordina in Saudi Arabia in May.

Cacace v Warrington was non-title bout. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

They grew up together in the Irish amateur set up and Frampton calls his former sparring partner ‘The Cinderella Man’.

“He was working as a pizza delivery man and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him on the dole queue a year or so ago,” said Frampton, “and look where he is now.”

Next for Cacace is a defence against Josh Warrington at Wembley Stadium on September 21 [which Cacace won the points – Ed] and Frampton has proved to be a useful ally in the build-up.

He was outpointed by Warrington in Manchester in December, 2018.

“I knew he was strong, fit and dogged,” said Frampton, “but there was nothing to suggest he could punch. I thought his shots would bounce off my head.

“But I have never been hit as hard in my life as he hit me in the first round. The first three rounds were really hard. I did well in the middle rounds, but if I had the right mentality, it might have been different. If I had sparred him and knew how hard he punched.”

Frampton doesn’t have many regrets.

He doesn’t regret choosing boxing over football when he was a teenager, but possibly regrets losing his nerve away from boxing.

Frampton revealed he was approached to appear on talent show ‘Celebrity X Factor.’

“They asked me to record myself singing and I did a Marvin Gaye number,” he said.

“They loved it. They wanted me in, but I s*** myself!

“I was still boxing at the time and maybe it would have helped me get more sponsors, but I s*** myself.”

Would he do it if approached now?

Frampton thought for a few seconds.

“Possibly.”