In the end, the knockdown had no bearing on Carl Frampton’s Belfast return, but it certainly made the finish more interesting.
Carl Frampton cruised to a unanimous decision victory in a hard-fought contest against Mexico’s Horacio Garcia in the SSE Arena on Saturday night.
‘The Jackal’ had to dig deep in the later rounds when the Mexican started coming into his own. After the final bell rang, though, all three judges had it as a clear win for Frampton. The ringside adjudicators scored it 98-93, 97-93, 96-93 in favour of the hometown hero.
Had it not been for that pesky knockdown in the seventh round, Frampton would have amassed a bigger lead heading into the home stretch. When he took a seat on the canvas, what would have likely been a 10-9 round, suddenly became a 10-8 against him.
Frampton clearly slipped during the incident, but referee Victor Loughlin started a 10 count confirming the knockdown. Garcia clipped the Northern Irishman on the way down but he was back to his feet by the time the referee reached ‘four’.
As he explained to Irish-Boxing.com after the fight, Frampton made a rookie error with his footwear in the build-up to fight night.
“The ring was a bit wet and me, being silly, I should have been more experienced, I got new boots and I’ve worn them twice – I probably should have broke them in a wee bit more, still a bit slippy.”
“In fairness to Victor Loughlin, as I slipped, something landed on the way down and he’s going to give a knockdown.”
As the great Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘be sure to put your feet in the right place and stand firm.’ If you want to make sure you continue to stand firm in a new pair of shoes, do yourself a favour, and break them in first.
