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When and Where will Josh Warrington v Carl Frampton be?


It has been 19 days since an excitable Frank Warren proclaimed “IT. IS. ON!” from the centre of Windsor Park stadium.

Belfast favourite Carl Frampton had just stopped Aussie Luke Jackson and was joined in the ring by IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington.

The Leeds boxer was always next on the agenda for Frampton and, even before the Jackson fight, common promoter Warren had spoken of a December fight in neutral Manchester.

The Windsor Park fight night saw the unveiling of BT Sport’s pay-per-view intentions and Warrington v Frampton is to be one of three box office fights on the platform this Autumn and Winter alongside Gennady Golovkin v Canelo Alvarez 2 and Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury.

However, alongside Wilder-Fury, no date or venue had been set and now agreement had been signed between Warrington and Frampton – with ‘The Jackal’ himself admitting that he would be taking a week off to go on holidays with his family in Turkey before sorting out what will be his seventh world title fight.

Frampton began pre-camp on Tuesday in Belfast and will soon return to the VIP Gym in Astley, Manchester, to link up with coach Jamie Moore and may also head to Tenerife for some warm-weather altitude training.

This training schedule, for a fighter that usually enjoys a twelve week or longer camp, would suggest that the fight will take place by the end of the year as planned – although British boxing writer Shaun Brown has revealed today that we are still a bit away from an announcement

With outdoor events impossible due to Winter weather, the possible venues for the fight, should it be agreed, have been narrowed down to the O2 Arena in London and the Manchester Arena.

Frampton fans have been trawling over schedules to narrow down the possibilities.

Unless there is a hugely undesirable delay and the fight is put back to next January or February, most see there to be four possible dates – December 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd.

In terms of the Manchester Arena, the first three of these dates can be ruled out due to events already booked into the venue. This leaves Saturday December 22nd, which Irish-Boxing.com believes will be the destination of the fight – evoking memories of Andy Lee’s eventual fight with Billy Joe Saunders at the same venue on Saturday 19th December 2015.

Looking to London, both the 8th and the 22nd of December are available.

Some have been critical of Warren’s ‘announcement’ of the fight but, at this stage, all that is hoped is that everything will soon be signed and sealed for before the end of the year to provide Frampton the chance to win a fourth world title and set himself up for super-fights in the U.S. in 2019.

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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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