Having previously hinted at an early retirement, Carl Frampton is now doing everything possible to extend his boxing career.
Frampton credits trainer Jamie Moore with turning around his outlook on boxing, with the Belfast fighter admitting that his love for the sport has returned in recent years.
Ahead of his IBF featherweight title fight against Josh Warrington this weekend, Frampton revealed the changes he’s made to his life in the past 12 months.
Working with a new nutritionist, ‘The Jackal’ has looked fitter than ever and he explained how he arrived at the decision to cut out alcohol for the remainder of his fighting career.
Speaking at his Astley gym, Frampton revealed that he plans to see out his time as a fighter with a more professional approach to what he puts into his body.
“I’m teetotal. It will be a year on Boxing Day that I had my last drop of booze,” Frampton said.
“It was a decision I made to help with the longevity of my boxing career and because I didn’t want to balloon up in weight in between fights.
“It was Boxing Day last year that I had a real skinful, I remember waking up with a pretty bad hangover.
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“I made a New Year’s resolution that I was going to stay off the booze until I pack it in with the boxing.”
There has been the odd occasion of feeling more merry than a teetotaller ought to but Frampton has been determined to prove his wife, who doubted his ability to abandon booze completely, wrong.
Frampton said: “I was at a 50 Cent concert in Dublin and was drinking a zero alcohol bottle of beer but I think it was spiked with proper booze because I drank it and started feeling a wee bit giddy.
“To stop drinking was the first resolution I have ever made and I won’t even allow myself a pint after the fight with Warrington.”
Weight is not too great an issue for Frampton but with his 32nd birthday approaching, he is pursuing any possible edge in extending his time in the ring.
Alcohol is no longer on the agenda and under the guidance of nutritionist Marcus Hannon, Frampton hopes to continue fighting as long as his body allows.
“There are probably two carb meals a day at breakfast and lunch. I’ll have a little bit of carbs in the evening meal and snack on high-protein foods like berries and stuff like that every now and then just to take the sweet tooth away,” Frampton exclusively told SportsJOE.
“As the fight gets a bit closer, the calorie intake and the macros will be reduced and it’ll just be done accordingly for me to get by and eat enough so that I’m not hungry but making the weight is the most important.
“I’m well used to the weight cut because I’ve been boxing since I was a seven-year-old kid. That’s over 20 years so I’m not new to that at all.”
