Insults fly as trainers declare war
QUIGG-FRAMPTON DUEL HOTS UP
IF THE war of the world’s two super-bantamweight champions is as fiery as the war of words between their trainers then we are in for one helluva fight in Manchester on saturday night. As a prelude to the Battle of Britain between Carl Frampton, 29, and scott Quigg, 27, their ring-masters have been wading into each other.
in Frampton’s Belfast corner shane McGuigan, the rising young star of modern boxing science. in Quigg’s lancashire corner Joe Gallagher, the first British professor of the sweet science to be honoured as trainer of the Year by ring magazine, bible of American boxing.
‘trainer of the year?’ McGuigan scoffs. ‘i don’t admire him one bit. if that’s what he really is he shouldn’t be calling out a 27-year-old like me. if ricky Hatton was still training Quigg he wouldn’t look like the muppet Joe is making of himself.’
Gallagher, 47, ripostes: ‘shane is trying to force this rivalry between us. He’s getting a lot of attention because he inherited Frampton, then George Groves and david Haye joined his gym. But his father gave him Carl and then Groves and Haye turned to him because no-one else wants to take them on.
‘He says he will be best equipped to deal with a crisis when one comes in this fight. on what grounds? what experience? what nonsense.
‘i’ll tell you what shane will be doing in the crisis — picking Carl off the floor.’
McGuigan: ‘ Joe is trying to get under my skin the way scott wants to get under Carl’s. it won’t work. does Joe think i’m a stupid kid? does he really think he can get me so riled up that i’ll send Carl charging out like a lunatic going crazy for a first-round knockout and walk on to a big shot himself? Please.’
Gallagher: ‘Until a trainer brings a kid through from scratch to a title, he’s achieved nothing.’
McGuigan: ‘ what’s he talking about? i’ve only just started. i haven’t had time yet to bring them through.
‘Joe’s been going for years and the jury is still out. i can’t think of any boxer he’s had from the start and turned into a world champion.’
Gallagher, who has built a stable of champions through British, Commonwealth and european titles to world level, says: ‘there are plenty of trainers in Britain miles better than shane but don’t get the recognition. He’s only getting all this publicity because of his dad and on saturday we will expose the hype.’ the father Experienced: Gallagher with Quigg (left) in question is Barry McGuigan, idolised in Belfast as an all-time great world featherweight champion and a legend as the Catholic peacemaker who had the courage to marry the Protestant girl he loved at the height of the troubles.
McGuigan snr is an inspiration to Frampton. A Protestant from the staunchly Unionist tiger Bay area of Belfast, his wife is Catholic.
Barry also sees in shane a greater potential as a trainer than a fighter. Ask if he would have liked his son to have been his own trainer and he says: ‘definitely. He is on top of all the hi-tech fitness regimes.
‘times have changed since my day. shane is an expert on balancing weight loss with power retention. if he’d been my trainer he would have drilled into me the discipline i didn’t have. in making the weight, i used to physically shrink just before a fight.’
in Quigg, Gallagher has a boxer of such devotion that it borders on mania. that makes him ask: ‘ Can Carl reach scott’s physical peak?’ McGuigan Jnr replies: ‘Frampton is just as dedicated but is more rounded and has a far better boxing brain.’
each camp suspects that the other fighter may struggle to get down to the 8st 10lb super-bantamweight limit. the iBF and wBA — whose world championship belts belong to Frampton and Quigg respectively — have agreed to a weight-check on the morning of the fight when neither must scale more than 10lb heavier than at Friday’s weigh-in.
Behind all the verbal sparring lies the more serious business of the game-plans. Gallagher sees Quigg ripping into Frampton with his trademark body shots to set up a stoppage inside the first six rounds.
McGuigan does not rule out a firstround Ko for Frampton if Quigg walks on to his man’s counter-punching, although he is confident that the Jackal’s ring-craft will clinch the decision if it goes 12 rounds.
one meticulously devised plan is about to come a cropper. Saturday, from 6pm: Frampton v Quigg, Sky Sports Box Office.