Carl Frampton outlines options aside from Jamel Herring

For many, the path seems almost preordained.

Carl Frampton [27(15)-2(0)] will stop Darren Traynor this Saturday night, WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring will soon defend against Jonathan Oquendo, and then the pair will meet towards the end of the year.

It’s the route to Irish boxing immortality for ‘The Jackal’ who is looking to cement his spot as our greatest ever.

Herring is a Top Rank stablemate, the most ‘beatable’ 130bs champion, there has been plenty of talk, and a date had even been locked in prior to the COVID crisis.

However, Frampton has revealed that his options remain open and, while Herring remains the likeliest, his future is not written in stone.

Outlining the options beyond Herring, Frampton told Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports that “Bob Arum is keen on myself and Jamel Herring. But if for some reason that fight doesn’t happen, there are other fighters with Top Rank that very much appeal to me.

“[Miguel] Berchelt is one of them. He’s in my opinion the top guy at 130 at the minute. You always want to challenge yourself against the best, and that’s a fight that would appeal to me, too.”

“So would a fight with Oscar Valdez. He doesn’t have a title, but that would be a great fight.”

Both Berchelt [37(33)-1(1)], who holds the WBC title, and Valdez [28(22)-0] are also Top Rank stablemates of Frampton.

Indeed a Valdez fight had been the initial front-runner when the Belfast boxer joined Arum’s stable before the Herring clash came into view.

All this said, the Mexican pair seem to be being built towards a fight with each other and Herring remains the obvious choice for the history-chasing Frampton.

The Irishman outlined how “there are a lot of good fights to be made for me, but the fight with Jamel is one that myself and Jamel have been talking about more so than the rest of the opposition at 130.”