VEGAS GLITZ WON’T FAZE FRAMPTON

CARL FRAMPTON is staying in one of the Sky Lofts, the jewels in the crown of the MGM Grand Hotel which glitters over the Las Vegas Strip like a gigantic emerald. When the Ulsterman, who goes by the nickname The Jackal, crosses the private foyer the bell boys, receptionists, duty managers and concierge stand promptly to attention. As the express elevator arrives at his palatial apartment, he is welcomed by a personal butler waiting on his every need. Frampton is preparing for his fight here on Saturday against Leo Santa Cruz. Such attention could be deemed befitting of the United Kingdom’s premier world boxing champion, but Frampton says: ‘To be honest I find it all a bit uncomfortable and, while I know my butler’s name is Eric, I don’t think he really knows who I am.’ There speaks an intelligent 29-year-old man of simple tastes; a devoted husband and father who understands the need to enrich his family’s future but who does not flaunt the wealth he is accruing on his remarkable ascent from the loyalist stronghold of Belfast’s Tiger’s Bay. ‘I’m not used to all this,’ he says. ‘I don’t understand people who are changed by success. They do themselves no good. I’m still the same lad I’ve always been. Maybe I’ve gained a little more confidence than I had as a shy lad. But I’ll never change. ‘Anyway, my family wouldn’t let me, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.’ There is something detached and decisive about Frampton when he speaks. And he knows it. ‘Am I cold and calculating?’ he asks himself. ‘Yes, I think I am. Except for the night of the fight, I don’t get all hyped up and excited. Even in the ring I don’t really feel the pressure. I use my brain to work out my opponent and adapt quickly and accordingly. Does that make me a freak?’ If so, then he regards Mexican Santa Cruz as one, too. Their first fight in Brooklyn was a classic match of styles during which the pair of them were probably the coolest cats in the Barclays Center. That thriller — in which Frampton added the WBA featherweight title to a resumé already boasting a unified superbantamweight championship by narrowly inflicting Santa Cruz’s first defeat — has set the dramatic scene for a rematch which could be even more captivating and dynamic. And while Las Vegas is the mecca of boxing, Frampton wants his next trick to be taking his belt home to the rebuilt national football ground at Windsor Park in Belfast. He says: ‘Topping the bill at the MGM is incredible, but the real dream is to defend my title in style back there in front of 30,000 of my fellow countrymen. If I do that I will eventually retire happy.’ Frampton v Santa Cruz is live on Sky Sports 1 on Saturday night from 1am.