Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BILLY COULD BE THE KEE FOR JACKAL
CARL FRAMPTON is determined to make history tonight as a tribute to his mentor Billy Mckee. Mckee was Frampton’s first amateur coach at the Midland Boxing Club in his native Belfast, guiding him from the age of seven. He passed away in February and Frampton says he will dedicate his victory to him if he can dethrone Jamel Herring to become Ireland’s first three-weight world champion. “There have been people who have helped me along the way, but a big influence on my career is Billy Mckee and he just recently passed away,” said the Ulsterman (with Mckee, right).
“He was my old amateur trainer. That’s a real motivating factor for me because I know he was one of my biggest supporters. I would love to dedicate the win to Billy and that’s what I intend to do.”
Mckee was an inspiration and a role model because of his attitude to life.
“I wanted to emulate Billy in his approach to life,” he said. “He was just a straight man, said things the way they were, talked straight to people. He was a hard wee man, who never took s**t. Everybody I know respected Billy Mckee. He was just a great man, one of the best men I have ever met.”
Frampton, 34, is driven by his quest to make history and join Bob Fitzsimmons, Ricky Burns and Duke Mckenzie as Britain’s only three-weight world champions. The Jackal has already won the unified superbantamweight title and WBA Super featherweight crown and knows victory tonight will cement his legacy. “I use that as motivation,” he said. “The chance to become a threeweight world champion and make history, of course that’s a motivating factor for me.
“The chance to go down as the only three-weight world champion from the whole island of Ireland. It would mean the world.” zherring v Frampton is live on Channel 5 from 10pm.