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Bob Arum planning Manchester spy mission ahead of Valdez unification


Bob Arum has reiterated his desire to match the winner of the Carl Frampton versus Josh Warrington ‘barnburner’ against his world champion Oscar Valdez.

The Top Rank boss will be an interested spectator of the BT Sport Box Office and ESPN+ bill as his charge Michael Conlan fights against British opposition and for his first title in Manchester on December 22nd.

However, Conlan won’t be the only reason the card holds his attention and has led to him planning to make a stop-off in the Titanic Ciy on his way home from a family holiday in Paris.

Arum is intrigued in the main event as he is hoping to make a unification clash between the winner of Frampton and champion Warrington’s IBF featherweight world title fight and WBO title holder Oscar Valdez.

Indeed, the American promoter would have been looking forward to the well-supported pair’s battle even if the outcome was irrelevant to him.

“We are looking forward to the Frampton-Warrington fight, which should be a real barnburner,” said Arum.

“Hopefully, we can match the winner with WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez in the spring or summer of 2019.”

Valdez, returning from a broken jaw, is set to fight on January 12th against soft opposition. This scheduling would lend itself well to a WBO-IBF featherweight unification in the early summer.

Naturally, Arum has previously noted that this fight would take place in America – but the advent of BT Sport pay-per-view and the size of Windsor Park could allow it to take place at Windsor Park, although this remains to be seen.

Arum, who shares a strong working relationship with Wueensberry boss Frank Warren, is expected to be ringside sitting alongside the Londoner in Manchester to see the only current Irish fighter on his stable compete.

Prospect Conlan is another that may fight outside in Belfast this summer with an August headline slot at the Féile an Phobail being sugested

Conlan has recently become close to his fellow Belfast boxer Frampton and the pair now insist that they will never fight each other. However, the Olympic bronze medallist is a possible future rival for Warrington, especially if his is beaten by ‘The Jackal’. Indeed, Conlan’s rival Shakur Stevenson has already called for a fight with the Englishman.

Arum added that “the addition of Mick Conlan to the card makes it a very attractive presentation on ESPN+ here in the States.”

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