Carl Frampton came through a harder-than-expected comeback fight at the SSE Arena in Belfast which keeps him on course for matches against the featherweight elite next year.
Frampton, with new trainer Jamie Moore in his corner and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez at ringside rooting against him, had a few sticky moments during this 10-round points win over Horacio Garcia.
The Mexican was known to be hard to discourage, but lacking the tools to compete at the highest level.
He handed Frampton, a former world champion at super-bantamweight and featherweight, a count in thee seventh and put him under pressure for spells in a good fight.
Frampton, fighting for the first time since losing his rematch to Leo Santa Cruz in January, won by scores of 96-93 (Dave Parris), 97-93 (Phil Edwards) and 98-93 (Steve Gray).
There were moments of quality from Frampton when he stood off and walked Garcia onto eye-catching punches – there were gasps when a lead left hook landed in the opening round – and anxious moments for his supporters as well in the second half of the fight when he had spells on the ropes.
Frampton blocked, or half blocked, most of what was thrown at him when he was under fire , but a right hand got through and opened a nick under his left eye in the sixth, adding to a wound on his right eyebrow caused by an earlier clash of heads.
Thank you to the main men @JamieMoore777 & @Nigel_Travis for helping me get the buzz back. And also Kerry Kayes for looking after the cuts. pic.twitter.com/YcnKt4AxmF
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) November 19, 2017
He took a count in the seventh – it looked like a slip – and went on to produce some of his best work in the eighth.
For the opening minute or so, Frampton stood in front of Garcia, blocking and countering effectively, and then got on the back foot and picked him off with clean single punches.
The Belfast crowd had earlier been hushed by IBF super-flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas.
Jamie Conlan had performed miracles to secure a world-title shot – but Ancajas was just too good for him.
Conlan had good moments boxing on the counter, the pre-fight game plan of trainer Danny Vaughan, but the polished Filipino southpaw was solid, accurate with his fast jab and whenever he went to the body, Conlan felt it.
The 31 year old was dropped four times before referee Steve Gray waved it off in the sixth. Conlan was also cut on his left eyebrow after a second-round clash of heads.
Never been more proud of my brother, well done to Jerwin Ancajas, he’s a world class fighter and a great champion. Thank you to the Belfast fans amazing support tonight, proud to be from this city 💙 Head up bro alway be my idol love ya xx @JamieConlan11pic.twitter.com/NShZGETN8U
— Michael Conlan (@mickconlan11) November 19, 2017
WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete went into the record books by chinning Sibonisa Gonya in just 11 seconds !
That is the quickest world-title fight in history.
Tete said he wanted to send out a message to IBF and WBA Super world champion Ryan Burnett – and he needed just one punch to do it.
The South African left handers circled each other at the bell and then Tete spotted a gap in Gonya’s defences and jumped in with a southpaw right hand that swept the challenger off his feet.
Referee Phil Edwards reached the count of ‘four’ and then waved the fight off.
Paddy Barnes also impressed, knocking out Elicier Quezada in six rounds to add the vacant WBO Intercontinental flyweight belt to his WBO European title.
The result, the best of Barnes’ five-fight pro career, should take him into the WBO’s top 10 and on this showing, he deserves to be there.
Quezada had been competitive on the fringes of world class in his 31-fight career, was taller by a couple of inches – and heavier.
He scaled 8st 2 1/2lbs at the second attempt at Friday’s weigh in and to make Barnes’s job even tougher, the Nicaraguan had a jerky, switch-hitting style.
But Barnes was always on top in a good fight. He outboxed Quezada and when the Nicaraguan stopped moving and put it on him, he out fought him, keeping his defences tight and landing the cleaner punches in the exchanges.
Barnes had him on the floor late in the second with a short right hook and finished the job in style in the sixth.
He knocked all the fight out of Quezada with a cracking left hook to the chin and an even better left hook to the ribs that put him on his knees for the full count.
Cheery Dublin psychopath Jono Carroll ignored cuts on both eyes to blast Humbero De Santiago out of their fight for the vacant IBF Intercontinental super-featherweight championship in the third round.
Carroll unleashed a burst of 14 unanswered punches to hand the Mexican the first stoppage defeat of his career.
In the best of the undercard action, Marco McCullough rebuilt confidence after his defeat to Ryan Walsh for the British featherweight title by stopping Josh Baillie in three rounds. Baillie, a game 31 year old from Tamworth who decided to roll the dice after being offered the fight at short notice, was dropped by a right hand.
Tommy McCarthy is another looking to get back into title contention and the Belfast cruiserweight outpointed Blaise Mendouo 60-55 in a six rounder between former world-class amateurs.
For a couple of rounds, Mendouo didn’t give counter puncher McCarthy much to counter, but once he started to swing big punches, McCarthy was able to show his quality and a neat cluster of punches had Blaise looking unsteady for a few moments in the fourth.
In a crowdpleasing four rounder, Liverpool’s Alex Dickinson, England Boxing Elite super-heavyweight champion in 2016, outslugged flabby-but-tough Milen Paunov 40-36 over four rounds.
Belfast welterweight Lewis Crocker took just 110 seconds to extend his 100 per-cent knock out record, a two-fisted burst leaving Hungarian teenager Gyula Rozsas so badly dazed the referee had to jump in.
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