BOXER LUKE JACKSON SWEARS HE MEANT NO HARM
BOXING champ Luke Jackson has denied he was disrespectful with comments towards Carl Frampton, but is not concerned if the Irish superstar has his nose out of joint.
Jackson returned to Hobart yesterday following his whirlwind trip to Belfast for the official confirmation of his upcoming showdown with Frampton, which will have the WBO interim world featherweight belt on the line.
When asked by the local Irish media what impresses him about former world superbantamweight and featherweight world champion Frampton, the Tasmanian said “as a fighter, he doesn’t do anything great but he does everything very, very well.”
Frampton responded by declaring the comments “very disrespectful” but while Jackson insisted they were taken out of context, he will not lose any sleep as he begins his preparations for the biggest fight of his life at Windsor Park on August 18.
“I didn’t mean anything bad by that, what I meant by it was Carl Frampton is a very, very good fighter, he does all the basics very well,” Jackson said.
“His hand speed is good, his power is good, his head movement is good, he’s fundamentally very sound. But he doesn’t do anything great, he is not a murderous puncher, he is not [lightning] quick. He is a very smart fighter.
“He took it the wrong way, but I don’t care how he takes it, he is going to punch me in the head anyway and I’m going to punch him in the head. It doesn’t really matter what I said to upset him.
“When you talk about great fighters, you don’t mention Carl Frampton, you don’t mention Luke Jackson either.
“When you mention great fighters, you talk about Vasyl Lomachenko, that’s who we are talking about. Canelo Alvarez, GGG [Gennady Golovkin], they are great fighters.”
Jackson said after sitting next to John Fury — father of former lineal heavyweight champion Tyson — on his connecting flight from Belfast to Manchester, he was invited to train alongside the English star before his bout. It is an offer he quickly accepted.
“I sat next to Tyson Fury’s old man on the plane, he invited me to his training camp just before we go over to Ireland.
“They went to Germany and beat Wladimir Klitschko who was the reigning champ for 11 years, they know what it takes to upset the odds.
“You just have to believe it, and Tyson Fury believed it was going to happen.”
Jackson will head to Sydney this weekend for six weeks before returning to Europe to round out his preparations.