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“He didn’t care” – Carl Frampton calls for new weigh-in rules following Quigg-Valdez controversy


Carl Frampton has hit out at Scott Quigg following the Englishman’s behaviour in the build-up to his WBO featherweight title challenger last weekend.

Quigg came in almost three pouns overweight for his bout versus the Mexican – tipping the scales at 128.8lbs for the 126lbs title fight – and would then point-blank refuse to do a check-weight the following morning.

The Bury boxer was subsequently outpointed by Valdez in the pouring rain at the StubHub Centre in Los Angeles in a hard-hitting bout which saw the champion’s jaw broken and Quigg suffering a broken nose.

The weigh-in debacle was put down to a stress fracture in Quigg’s foot suffered during the build-up.

Frampton, however, is not buying his former foe’s excuse.

“He didn’t care about the weight,” blasted ‘The Jackal’ in his weekly column for the Sunday Life.

“It was said that he had a stress fracture and that’s why he couldn’t make the limit but there are other things you can do – such as the bike – to lose weight and if it was really that bad then he shouldn’t have fought, he should have pulled out.”

“It just seems very strange to me that someone who has boasted about how professional he is can come in so far away from the limit for a World title shot.”

“Promoter Eddie Hearn said that Quigg weighed around 142lbs [in the ring] and it was clear that his tactics were to try and bully Valdez because he was the bigger man so I’m not convinced that he missed the 9st limit because of the stress fracture.”

Frampton was extremely critical of the man he outpointed in a massive Sky Box Office clash at the Manchester Arena two years ago, and called for greater regulation of the issue of weight by the four major governing bodies.

The Belfast 31-year-old outlined how “Scott Quigg acted in a totally disrespectful manner to his opponent Oscar Valdez and the sport of boxing last weekend and just highlighted why the governing bodies need to get tougher over the issue of weight.”

“The governing bodies have to show they are in control of title fights and I hope that Quigg’s behaviour will lead to the WBO, WBC, WBA and IBF bringing in stringent rules about weight and fighters on the day of the fight being within a certain percentage of a weight before they are allowed to box that night.”

“It can’t be the case that you can miss it and simply pay a fine which is a fraction of what the fighter is being paid.”

Quigg was docked $20,000 from his announced $100,000 purse, although it is believed that he received much more than this from U.K TV.

Frampton is currently deep in preparations for his April 21st non-title showdown with Nonito Donaire at the SSE Odyssey Arena.

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Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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