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Carl Frampton reveals the only time he got knocked out


During the build up to his grudge match with Scott Quigg, Carl Frampton was open and honest about the few times he had hit the canvas throughout his boxing career – something he did again ahead of his clash with Josh Warrington.

Team Quigg were attempting to sow seeds of doubt claiming they had heard stories the then-IBF super bantamweight champion had hit the canvas a number of times during sparring.

‘The Jackal’ had just been down twice in the first round of his comeback win versus the late Alejandro Gonzalez Jr, but pointed out they were flash knockdowns which he had no issue recovering from – much like his trip to the canvas versus Horacio Garcia years later which was a balance and footwear issue. 

He also defused Team Quigg’s suggestions he struggled with opponent’s power by openly discussing the times he did have issues in sparring. 

The Frank Warren and Top Rank fighter refreshingly revealed Stevie Bell had dropped him twice with body shots early in his career, but clarified he wasn’t quite living the life at the time and had been eating fast food before the spar. 

He revealed John Simpson had also made him touch his glove off the canvas with a big shot and later confirmed Conor Ahern hurt him bad when he was a flyweight and training with the High Performance Squad.

Frampton was keen to reveal he was never out cold or dropped too badly in competitive action or sparring from his days as an underage operator up all the way to world level. 

However, that isn’t to say ‘The Jackal’ has never been knocked out! There is one person in Belfast who can lay claim to being the only man to spark one of Ireland’s greatest ever boxers – and he isn’t even a fighter. 

The one time Frampton fell heavy from a punch he literally hit the turf – kissing the grass of the football pitch rather than the canvas. 

Speaking on Joe.co.uk’s TKO podcast, which has been growing in popularity, Frampton explained how “I got chinned in a game [of football] first time properly.”

“I was meant to be weighing in for the Co Antrim Championships. I was 15 or 16. I played a football game my boxing trainer asked me not to play. I told him I wasn’t going to play, but I played it anyway.”

“A fight broke out between my team, Loughside Boys, and another team called Crumlin Star. A fight broke out and someone ran and I turned into a big dig and he chinned me, properly chinned me. I was known as a boxer so that’s probably why.”

“I know his name but I won’t say it on the podcast. He was a big lump and he cut my mouth, I had to get stitches on the inside of my mouth. That was the only time I was knocked out and it was playing football!”

Watch the latest edition of TKO below:

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Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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