Saturday night could well turn out to be the last we’ll see of Belfast’s Carl Frampton in the ring and if so, he will bow out with one hell of a memorable fight.
Frampton and Josh Warrington put on a brawl for the ages in Manchester, with the latter successfully defending his IBF featherweight title with a unanimous decision win.
Neither man took a backwards step in the main event of the Frank Warren card, which went head to head with Eddie Hearn’s Dillian Whyte vs. Dereck Chisora rematch in London.
The Manchester event closed with an unforgettable slugfest and how neither Warrington nor Frampton fell at any point beggars belief.
There was mutual respect in the ring after the bout which went to the judges, who scored the bout 116-113, 116-112 and 116-112 in favour of Warrington.
Great to see two fighters share a moment like this after a cracking fight 👊
Josh Warrington and Carl Frampton in the dressing room last night 🤝pic.twitter.com/LTEe6qT1rF
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) December 23, 2018
And that respect continued in the Leeds warrior’s dressing room in the moments after the final bell as the pair posed for photographs, signed gloves to auction off for charity and exchanged some kind words about the other’s performance.
“I don’t want to say I underestimated you. That’s the wrong word,” Frampton said.
“I knew it was going to be a hard fight but I think it was your power that fucking really surprised me. Fuck me, man.
“You can take a shot, you can punch hard. I hope you go on and beat them all, mate.”
Frampton refused to rule out the possibility of retirement after suffering his second career defeat but he will take Christmas off before he makes a decision on his fighting future.
