Luke Jackson claims Frampton ‘beef’ is fake

Luke Jackson claims he hasn’t said “anything out of line” with regard to Carl Frampton [25(14)-1(0)] and has stressed that his words are being twisted.

Reports the Tasmanian believes ‘The Jackal’ is overlooking him ahead of their Windsor Park meeting are widespread and the Belfast fighter took offence to quotes from Jackson regarding ‘The Jackal’s’ weight and amateur pedigree.

However, the 2012 Olympian claims he is being misrepresented and that he has nothing but respect for the former two weight world champion ahead of their clash on August 18th.

The back and forths between the pair in recent weeks has added some spice to the build-up and some interest to a match-up which has been heavily criticised – but Jackson [16(7)-0] claims that this has come via misquoting and the twisting of words.

“I don’t know where they’re getting some of those headlines from, but if that’s what they need to do to pump the fight up a little bit, then that’s what they need to do,” the 33-year-old told Sporting News, an Australian outlet.

“I respect Carl Frampton – I don’t feel I’ve said anything out of line. He’s a very good fighter and I’m sure he’s going to be at his very best.

“Where they’re getting these headlines from in the UK, I have no idea – and I don’t really care,” he added before noting how ‘beef’ sells.

“I think the media have taken some words and twisted them a lot to try and play me as a bad guy and maybe they’ll sell more tickets.”

“They just like to keep trying to cause bad blood, but there’s no bad blood on my side. If they want to have it, that’s fine, but I’m not buying into it.”

Contextualising the ‘overweight’ claims – which seem to have been the barb that has irked Frampton the most, Jackson stresses that there was no malice or mindgames intended.

Rather than ‘the media’, these quotes emerged from a press release issued by Frank Warren – the promoter of Frampton and the stadium event – and Jackson is not happy.

READ: Luke Jackson believes overweight Frampton is overlooking him.

READ: Frampton hits back at overweight jibes.

The Olympian explained how “they asked if I’d seen any footage of Carl, and I said he looked good, maybe he could be a bit heavy at this stage but I’m sure the weight will come down soon.

“They said I said he was sluggish and fat. They just twist your words. The headline was ‘Luke says Frampton was sluggish and fat’.”

“I didn’t say that. Look it doesn’t matter what I said. I didn’t say what they said, but I don’t care. I have the utmost respect for Carl Frampton and his team.”

Jackson now claims he has become so wary of the UK press that he is making sure he won’t be misquoted before granting interviews.

The fighter, who is managed by MTK Global who are preventing him from speaking to Irish media, described how “someone contacted me today and I said ‘look if you actually publish what I say’, I’m happy to do an interview, but I won’t do any more if they continue to twist my words.”