Maurice Hooker knows exactly how it feels to take a transatlantic trip to fight a former world champion in his hometown.
Dallas’ Hooker traveled to Manchester, England, where he defeated Terry Flanagan by split decision in his hometown to win the then-vacant WBO junior welterweight title in June 2018. His personal experience prevents Hooker from saying stablemate Jamel Herring can’t beat Belfast’s Carl Frampton on points in Frampton’s hometown, but Hooker doesn’t expect Herring to leave it to the judges when he faces Frampton in Northern Ireland.
“Jamel’s gonna beat him,” Hooker told BoxingScene.com. “He’s the bigger guy in this fight, he’s a good boxer and he’s a southpaw. It’s gonna be a good fight while it lasts. I think [Herring will] stop him. He throws good punches to the body. He’s a good boxer, and I think the body punches are gonna stop him. I don’t think [Herring] has to stop him to win, but I think he’ll have to beat him up really bad to get the decision.”
Frank Warren, Frampton’s co-promoter, announced Wednesday that a deal has been finalized for Herring to defend his WBO junior lightweight title versus Frampton.
The Herring-Frampton fight tentatively is scheduled for June 13, though the date could change due to the impact the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have on the sport. Whenever their fight happens, Herring (21-2, 10 KOs), a U.S. Marine from Coram, New York, and Frampton (27-2, 15 KOs) will headline a card either at Windsor Park, an outdoor venue in Belfast, or The SSE Arena Belfast.
Frampton, a former featherweight and junior featherweight champion, has boxed just once at the junior lightweight limit of 130 pounds.
The 33-year-old former champion has never been knocked out. He has lost only a 12-round majority decision to four-division champion Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1, 19 KOs) and a 12-round unanimous decision to IBF featherweight champ Josh Warrington (30-0, 7 KOs).
The 30-year-old Hooker (27-1-3, 18 KOs) was supposed to move his camp from Omaha, Nebraska, to Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Sunday. He instead returned to the Dallas area once his April 17 fight against Regis Prograis (24-1, 20 KOs) was postponed indefinitely.
Before Hooker headed home, he sparred recently against Herring. Hooker has noticed a lot of improvement in the 34-year-old Herring, who won a 130-pound championship last May 25 after moving down from the lightweight limit of 135 pounds in 2018.
“He’s an all-around boxer,” Hooker said. “I sparred him a couple times maybe two, three weeks ago. It was my first time in camp, but he’s always in shape and he’s just a good boxer. He improves every camp.”
Hooker and Herring are trained by Brian McIntyre, who also trains WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.