Carl Frampton Wants UK Showdown With Lee Selby in Belfast

By Keith Idec

His full focus is on Leo Santa Cruz these days, but Northern Ireland’s Carl Frampton has a big fight in Belfast in the back of his mind.

The unbeaten WBA world 126-pound champion hopes another victory over Santa Cruz in their rematch January 28 in Las Vegas leads to a featherweight title unification fight against Wales’ Lee Selby later in 2017. Showtime, which will televise the rematch between Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) and Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) from MGM Grand Garden Arena, also is expected to broadcast Selby’s defense of the IBF world featherweight championship from MGM Grand that night.

Selby (23-1, 8 KOs) is set to square off against Argentina’s Jonathan Barrios (41-4-1, 22 KOs) in a 12-round fight January 28.

“Obviously, Leo is the only guy I’m thinking about at the minute,” Frampton told BoxingScene.com. “It’s a very difficult fight. But if I get through this one, which I intend to do, the Lee Selby fight is one that I want. It would be an easy fight to make. It’s maybe not a massive fight in the U.S. It would be a big enough fight. It would be a unification fight. But in the UK, you could put that in an outdoor stadium in Belfast and I think you could sell 25,000 tickets to that fight.”

The 29-year-old Frampton, who was revealed last week as BoxingScene.com’s “Fighter of the Year” for 2016, is eager to return to fight in Belfast. His past three fights have taken place in El Paso, Texas, Manchester, and Brooklyn.

Frampton hasn’t boxed in his hometown since stopping Chris Avalos in the fifth round of their February 2015 fight at Odyssey Arena in Belfast.

“I haven’t boxed in Belfast in a while now,” Frampton said. “I kind of miss doing that. It’s about checking off boxes, and doing different things. I’ve checked a few boxes and I’ve topped bills in the States. But a big box to check off for me is to fight at Windsor Park, the national football stadium back home. It’s just been redeveloped. When I retire, if I’ve boxed and defended a title at Windsor Park, I’m gonna retire a happy man.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.