Boxing clever: Frampton credits parents for steering him away from violence
BOXER Carl Frampton has spoken about witnessing sectarian violence growing up, including the aftermath of a kid “being blown up”.
The former two-weight world champion admitted that it would have been “very easy for me to get involved” in trouble as a young man in north Belfast.
Carl (34) said: “I lived on an interface, so Tiger’s Bay was separated — a loyalist, unionist neighbourhood separated by one street to the republican, Catholic neighbourhood, which is the New Lodge.
“I saw so much violence, so much trouble — especially in the marching seasons.
“I’d seen a kid actually get blown up, I saw the aftermath of him being blown up. And I’d seen people being shot at, I saw buses being hijacked and parked across a road and burnt out.
“I just saw things I probably shouldn’t have seen as a young lad and things that were kind of exciting. Although they were dangerous they were exciting. And it would have been very, very easy for me to get involved in that.”
But Carl credited both his parents, Craig and Flo, and boxing for taking him on a different path.
He said: “Because of boxing and because of my parents, I think I made the decision myself as well to stay away from all that and understand what was right from what was wrong.”
Carl also spoke about growing up with little money and credited his late trainer Billy Mckee, who passed away last week, as teaching him “respect”.
He explained: “A lot of people don’t have much money in these places where I come from.
“I didn’t have any money. My parents didn’t have any money, but they would always try to help other people if they needed it.
“I suppose it’s taught me how to grow up and be a man. Boxing as well then obviously, the club that I came from was the club in Tiger’s Bay called Midland. It taught me so much more as well.
“And I owe, I suppose, Tiger’s Bay, the area that I come from, and my boxing background as an amateur — I owe it everything really.”
Carl told the High Performance Podcast, hosted by BT Sport presenter Jake Humphries, that boxing and Billy also kept him away from other bad life choices.