Carl Frampton interview: 'The Jackal' confident of leading an army against Scott Quigg in Manchester

'It’s not Ireland vs England as Eddie's trying to make out, it's us against them.'

Carl Frampton outside the Nightingale Crisis Support Centre in Belfast, of which he is a patron

“The work they do here is incredible.” Carl Frampton is at the Nightingale Crisis Support Centre, of which he is a patron, where money raised through Sport Relief helps Belfast’s vulnerable get the support and care they need when the rest of the city’s doors are closed. “This is the only place here that's open 24 hours a day, where anyone needing any sort of help can come and visit.”

On the day of our conversation, its visitors are there for a coffee morning. Often, they come in a state of suicidal crisis. “I've seen first-hand the effects it can have on families,” says the IBF world super-bantamweight champion, who grew up on the city’s Tigers Bay estate. “I've known people who've committed suicide, I've known people who've been addicted to drugs. You don't just hear about it here, you know about it.”

The sport of boxing is filled with ‘hometown heroes’, fighters who represent more than just themselves in the ring. ‘The Jackal’, like his manager Barry McGuigan before him, can be counted among those ranks, although he would never suggest he is doing any more than fulfilling a responsibility to his community. “I'm just trying to do my small part in any way I can to help.”

It is, after all, the same community that supported him in the town halls and leisure centres, the same one that lined his hometown’s harbour on the night he took the world title against Kiko Martinez, and the same one that he expects will turn up in the backyard of his next opponent, Scott Quigg, for the biggest fight of his career to date on February 27.

“I think the atmosphere is going to be incredible. I've always had a fanatical fan base and that's something Quigg hasn't had,” he says. This unification bout at the Manchester Arena with Quigg, who holds a WBA version of the 122lbs crown, has been six years in the making. Tickets sold out in ten minutes. “Because of the magnitude of the fight and how big it is, he'll have a few more than normal, but I’m very confident.”

“There's no doubt in my mind that I'll have more fans in the arena than him. It's Northern Ireland, it's Ireland, it's Scotland, it's Wales, there’s Scousers, Londoners, all behind me. Quigg has a small fan base in Bury and Manchester, that's it. It’s not Ireland vs England as Eddie's trying to make out. It's us against them.

‘Eddie’ would be Matchroom Sport’s Eddie Hearn, Quigg’s promoter. “He gives as good as he gets, he's wind-up merchant. You either love or hate him and I don't particularly love him,” says Frampton of a man he worked with until a split three years ago, but he dismisses the idea that their shared history adds anything to the fight. “I guess you have to deal with these people and that's it”.


 Scott Quigg, right, celebrates his win over Kiko Martinez with promoter Eddie Hearn
 (Getty Images)

Sometimes, you have to deal with ‘these people’ on three-day promotional tours, as he had to last November. It was a lively few days, with ‘banter juice’-fuelled jibes exchanged in decent-enough humour. However, while the Northern Irishman retains a respect for his opponent, he has less to say for the rival camp, particularly the bullish attitude shown by Hearn and Joe Gallagher, Quigg’s outspoken trainer.

“I don't want to sound like I hate the world here but he's another one I don't like,” Frampton adds, when asked about Gallagher. “It's something about arrogance. I've always been the same since I was a kid, maybe it was the way I was brought up, but I've never liked arrogant people.

“Joe Gallager's like a petulant child sometimes. In press conferences, for instance, when we’re talking, he's rolling his eyes like a schoolgirl, pretending he's not listening. It's disrespectful and I don't like that.

“I'll respect any man that walks into the ring but people like Eddie Hearn and Joe Gallagher who've never taken a slap in the mouth in their lives shouldn’t be disrespectful towards me and other fighters,” he adds, calmly but sincerely. “It's just not on.”


 Carl Frampton with FASA's Anne Bill and Alex Bunting outside the Nightingale Crisis Support Centre
 (http://fasaonline.co.uk/)

Quigg’s camp are not just cock-sure for the sake of it, though. On the same night as their man demolished the aforementioned Martinez, ‘The Jackal’ hit the canvas twice in the first round of his Stateside debut, against the lanky, unspectacular and ultimately defeated Alejandro Gonzalez Jr.

“I just thought I was going go in and blow the guy away. Everything was too relaxed, out in the States, in a nice hotel, there was a pool, the weather's nice, and it didn't feel right.”

“The worst round of my whole professional career,” he admits, but perversely, one that hastened preparations for this upcoming unification. “They're taking confidence from that so it's probably a blessing in disguise that it happened. If I'd gone in and blew Gonzalez away in two rounds, then this fight still wouldn't be happening.

“You learn from your mistakes. I believe that Scott Quigg is a better fighter than Alejandro Gonzalez but I believe I'm a better fighter than Scott Quigg. I just need to prove it.”

He genuinely believes he will. That is, in part, thanks to the team behind him. Much has been made of his connection with McGuigan Snr, but 'The Clones Cyclone’s' son and Frampton’s precocious trainer Shane is beginning to catch the eye.

“One of the best things about him is how cool and calm he is in the corner,” says Frampton, who is two years older than his mentor. “If you watch fights of mine in the past, the instructions he lets on to me are very precise and there's only a couple in between the rounds. That’s important.

“Someone like Joe Gallagher tells his fighter 20 different things but it's important to only have one or two because you're just going to forget the rest, aren't you?” Maybe, though that did not stop Gallagher from being recognised as The Ring’s Trainer of the Year, the first British-born winner.

Frampton believes his man could soon become the second. That’s why the likes of George Groves and David Haye have recently taken up locker space at Shane’s gym in Battersea. “He's the whole package, everything, nutrition, boxing brain. I'm telling you, I think he's the best coach in the country and I promise, soon you'll be comparing him with the best in the world.”

Grand terms, but ‘The Jackal’ is prepared to talk in them. There is no bluster, no ‘arrogance’ and no artificial humility about Frampton. Just a plain and honest confidence that allows him to entertain thoughts of what comes next, after Quigg, without losing sight of the task at hand.

“There'll be options. Doors will open up. I'd like to unify the super-bantamweight division, there's potential fights against Nonito Donaire, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Julio Ceja but also Leo Santa Cruz appeals to me at featherweight.”

Then, with one all-British super-fight done, why not another? “Lee Selby, a very good fighter, that would be a mega-fight, but it's about getting past Quigg first, then we take it from there.

“I just predict a win. Me at my best beats Scott Quigg at his best. I’ll break him down and I'll knock him out as well.”

Carl Frampton is encouraging everyone to get behind Sport Relief by signing up to run, walk, swim or cycle themselves proud at the Sainsbury's Sport Relief Games on 18th-20th March. To find out more visit www.sportrelief.com