BATTLE TESTED
Life’s had world champ Herring on the ropes
CARL FRAMPTON will not be the hardest opponent Jamel Herring has faced.
From being taken into care as a kid, to serving in Iraq with the US Marines, to battling alcoholism and PTSD, to coping with the death of his first daughter, WBO super-featherweight champion Herring has dealt with everything life has thrown at him.
Herring and Frampton (inset) meet in Dubai tomorrow and he said: “People come to me and say, ‘Your story could turn into a movie.’
“People see the good, the world champion on top of the world, but they don’t always see where I came from.
“Somebody might be going through the same scenario as I did when I was five or six and that may help them get through a rough patch. If I can tell my story and potentially help save a life in the process, then I’ll do that.”
Herring’s journey began when he was four and he and younger brother Jarod were taken into foster care because their mum could not cope.
“I remember my mother just being upset and thinking that they just took me,” he said. “That’s the last thing I remember from that experience. I’m 35 and that one moment still sticks out.”
They were reunited with their mum 18 months later when she showed she could beat her demons. The New Yorker was motivated by the 9/11 attacks to join the Marines at 18 and did two tours of Iraq. He boxed for the Marines but tragedy struck in 2009 when his daughter Ariyanah died aged two months from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Herring overcame his grief to turn pro and won the WBO title in 2019.
Tomorrow, Frampton will not be dwarfed by Herring as the pint-sized puncher vows to topple the man from the Big Apple.
The Belfast boxer is hoping to become the first threeweight world champ from Ireland and fourth UK fighter to ever achieve the feat.
The former super-bantamweight and featherweight world champion faces a big challenge – quite literally – as he gives away five inches in height and seven in reach.
But there is no small-man syndrome here for the 5ft 5in Northern Irishman, despite being towered over by Herring at yesterday’s final press conference.
He said: “Looking at the height of him didn’t make me hesitate once about the fight. I have this mad thing in my head, I don’t know what it is, I don’t know how small I am until I see photographs of me.
“If I’m standing beside someone I don’t feel like I’m outsized that much. I don’t feel outsized by people until I see a photo. It is the same here.”