ADULT CHAT LINE
Frampton: Warrington says I’m battling to make nine stone because he has even worse problems
CARL FRAMPTON suspects Josh Warrington is accusing him of struggling to make weight because he is having his own problems.
Warrington’s dad and trainer Sean O’Hagan claims Frampton is battling to make the nine-stone featherweight limit and has stopped sparring to concentrate on dieting.
Frampton laughed this off and claims it is all a smokescreen because the unbeaten IBF champ is struggling to slim down.
“They can think I’m having problems if they want,” he said. “I think you can flip that on its head.
“He may be having the same problems I had at super-bantamweight and I struggled then to make the weight.
“I know how it feels to be hit with a shot when you have to be so lean to be at the limit.
“It’s hard and they hurt, especially body shots. Look at the fact that he has to be so lean, look at his face three weeks out and he was still pretty gaunt.
“I don’t have the same issues as him. That’s why I believe I’m better now as a featherweight than I was at super-bantamweight.”
Frampton, 31, claims his biggest issue at today’s weigh-in is finding a decent steakhouse for a meal afterwards.
“I’m online looking at restaurants, where we’re going to eat after the weigh-in and which steakhouse we’re going to eat in,” he said. “That’s more of a concern at the moment.”
O’Hagan is not convinced by Frampton’s bravado and recalled when the Belfast fighter failed to make weight for his aborted clash with Andres Gutierrez in July 2017.
“We know he’s struggling for weight,” said O’Hagan.
“He stopped sparring a couple of weeks ago and the only reason you do that is because you’re focusing on making weight.
“Sparring and making weight don’t go hand in hand, not in my book. Last fight he jogged to the weigh-in and weighed in without his underpants.”
Diehard Leeds fan Warrington will have his IBF belt carried into the ring by United skipper Liam Cooper and he has told off winger Stuart Dallas for backing fellow Ulsterman Frampton.
Warrington, 28, joked the Northern Ireland international should remember which club he plays for.
“I’ve been winding up Dallas,” he laughed.
“He’s good mates with Carl and he made some comments about the fight. So, when I saw him, I said, ‘Hey, who’s your money on? Don’t forget you’re wearing a Leeds shirt’. And he was like, ‘Nah, I’m just neutral’.
“He didn’t tell me who his money was on – but it had better be on me because I’m going to win.”