Warren responds to Team Herring and refutes claims TV issues are reason behind Frampton postponement

Frank Warren has hit back at suggestions something fishy is behind the latest postponement of Jamel Herring and Carl Frampton’s world title fight.

News broke last night that the WBO super featherweight world title fight, which was originally set for June of 2020, won’t be going ahead on the rescheduled February 27 date.

A slight injury to Frampton’s hand has pushed the bout back further with March 26 the new frontrunner datewise.

The news hasn’t gone down well with Team Herring, who fear there is more to the delay.

Speaking to Boxingscene Herring said: “I actually was hearing about this, honestly, for the last two, three days, the rumours.”

“MTK was frustrated because Frank Warren’s side hasn’t been keeping us in the loop about much. We were still literally last week trying to get plane tickets to go over to the UK.”

His coach, Brian McIntyre was a bit more direct and added “I think it’s some bull—-. All of a sudden, [Frampton] hurt his hand? Yeah, right.”

“We didn’t even receive flights or anything before we were supposed to leave and then we got no flights and all of a sudden he hurt his hand? Get the f— out of here. I don’t know what they’re doing over there.”

“Last week, I asked [Top Rank COO] Brad Jacobs if [ESPN] was going to pick up the fight and he just said straight out, ‘No. I’m not trying to be cute or anything but we’re not.’ I was like, ‘OK.’”

Warren isn’t having talk of skullduggery and is adamant Frampton has an injury.

“The fight was good to go and then Carl got an injury,” stated Warren.

“Carl called me and sent me a text confirming he was injured and we communicated that to Herring’s representatives.

“As for Herring and his trainer saying they were hearing rumours and were not kept in the loop, we don’t deal directly with the fighter or his trainer,” notes Warren.

“We deal with their representatives, who—in this case—is MTK and they had full knowledge of the situation.

“Regarding not receiving airline tickets or details, our office was in touch with MTK on this via email two weeks ago and as far as we were concerned, it was all in hand.”

There have been suggestions issues with ESPN that may have forced a delay. Irish-Boxing.com was aware ESPN wanted the bout to take place in the early hours of Sunday morning UK time so they could air it at prime time.

However, those issues seemed to have been ironed out, now some have suggested the American network didn’t want to pay for the fight.

However, Frampton confirmed he has a slight hand issue this evening.

“It is just a bit of a twinge to my hand, nothing too serious but I have seen a specialist, and his advice was to rest it,” revealed Frampton, 33. “So I asked about the possibility of a postponement to the fight and it was agreed to.

“It gives me a better chance because I will be going into the fight with two good hands after taking the advice from the specialist. It is nothing major though and there is no fracture.

“I did go into a fight with a hand injury against Tyler McCreary and ended up requiring surgery afterwards on both hands. No disrespect to Tyler, but Jamel Herring is a world champion and at a higher level so I need to be at my best. That is what I intend to be.

“I haven’t been able to spar or hit the heavy bags for a while. From next week I have been given the go-ahead to start doing that again. I have still been training, doing loads of running, shadow boxing and hitting the paddles as well, which kind of replicates the pads, but I have not hit anything solid for the last two weeks.

“It wouldn’t have sat right with me to pull out if people had spent their hard earned money on tickets and travel, but this is completely different and I just want to give myself the best opportunity to win and that is it.

“I would like to thank Frank and Bob for making this possible, plus Jamel as well for his understanding. It is something that just happens in boxing and I am thankful we have been able to postpone it.”