International boxing: Carl Frampton (26-2) v Tyler McCreary (16-0-1) (Sunday, 2.45am, live on BT Sport 1)
LAST time Carl Frampton was in Las Vegas, topping the bill at the MGM in his rematch with Leo Santa Cruz, Tyler McCreary was soldiering away on a backwater bill in his native Toledo, Ohio.
With the greatest of respect to ‘Golden Child’, Frampton might have used him as a sparring partner back then but the Belfast man’s losses to Santa Cruz and Josh Warrington and his recent inactivity means that their paths have now crossed and McCreary has been transformed from ‘who’s he?’ to arch nemesis as far as ‘the Jackal’ is concerned.
This is a golden ticket for the American. No-one gives him a chance against the two-weight, possibly three-weight, world champion and a win, even a good performance, will lift him to a level he could only have dreamed of until recently.
He’ll see Frampton as washed up, past it and over the hill and of course those are the unwanted tags the Jackal has to banish at the Cosmopolitan Casino tonight. Father time is the real enemy for Ireland’s second two-weight world champion who needs an impressive win to prove that he is indeed ‘#stillFrampton’ and genuinely on the road to a meeting with WBO super-featherweight Jamel Herring who, incidentally, was also on that Toledo bill back in 2017.
Tonight’s fight, on the undercard of Oscar Valdez versus Andres Guttierez (the man who slipped in his Europa Hotel bathroom the night before his scuppered fight with Frampton in August 2017), is a 10-round contest at a catch-weight 128lbs, midway between featherweight and super-feather.
Having boxed at lightweight in the past, McCreary will have no issues with the weight and as the younger man (he is 26 and Frampton is 32) he should have no problem with energy either. The most recent footage his coaches will have had to work on will have come from Frampton’s head-to-head duel with Josh Warrington in Manchester last December.
Frampton was expected to start quickly in that fight but he was too passive early on and Warrington had him in trouble in the opening two rounds. Frampton forgot the box-when-he-wants-to-fight-and-fight-when-he-wants-to-box tactics that had served him so well in the past and traded with the Leeds Warrior, coming off second best.
The furious exchanges took too much out of his legs and, although he rallied and got back into the fight, he had no complaints with the decision. McCreary could try the same tactics; feinting to draw Frampton in and then going after him, but he is not Josh Warrington.
However, he is young, hungry and confident with an upright style and a good jab that will cause Frampton problems early in the fight. Since early 2017, McCreary has fought just five times and progressed to 16-1 but, interestingly, that’s one more contest than Frampton.
“It’s a big step up for me, but I feel that I’m ready for it,” McCreary said.
“It’s an opportunity I couldn’t turn down, and I feel that every fight is a risk.
“A win here means a world title shot next. We got a call that Carl Frampton was looking for a fight. They didn’t have anyone, and I said: ‘I’ll take it.’ I didn’t hesitate.”
Of course he couldn’t turn it down and Frampton is well aware that McCreary will see taking his scalp as the passport to big fights and big purses. He should also be well aware of the dangers of underestimating any opponent – remember the trauma of his first round knockdown against Alejandro Gonzalez junior in El Paso back in 2015?
He got out of jail on that occasion (his last fight at super-bantam) but cannot afford a repeat tonight.
“I didn’t get the Top Rank deal off to an ideal start, but coming back in Vegas is great for me, especially against a really strong opponent,” said Frampton.
“It needed to be someone who would test me.
“It’s what I want, it’s what ESPN wants, what MTK Global wants and what Top Rank wants, so I’m 100 per cent confident it’s the right move for me.
“McCreary is a quality opponent, but if I want to be competing against the top guys in the world, which I believe I can, then I need to be beating guys like him and doing it in style.”
At his best Frampton is levels above McCreary. He has had a year to recover from losing to Warrington and has put the broken hand that caused the cancellation of his August comeback in Philadelphia behind him. He says he is ready and, perhaps for the first time since he beat Jeremy Parodi way back in 2013, makes no bones about wanting a knockout win tonight.
“If he beats me, I'm pretty sure in his next fight he'll fight for a world title but it's not going to happen,” said the Tigers Bay native.
“I've prepared very, very hard for this fight. I've prepared like I'm an underdog, and I am going in to put on a show. To be honest, I want to win this fight and I want to knock this kid out.
“It's a must-win. I have to win this fight to fight a champion in my next fight. I want to fight for a world title in my next fight, so I must beat Tyler McCreary and that’s why I’m looking at it as the most important fight of my career.”
Is this the ageing warrior against the hungry new kid on the block? Frampton’s fortunes have dipped dramatically since his last fight in Vegas but tonight gives him the perfect opportunity to prove that he is still close to the peak of his powers.
McCreary is brash and cocky and, as he said himself on social media, he “hasn’t come to lay down” but he will never have come up against an opponent with Frampton’s precise footwork and distance control. With seven world title fights behind him, Frampton has all the experience required to boss an opponent who should look out of his depth as long as he isn’t allowed to settle.
‘The Jackal’ will look to slip McCreary’s jab and land a left hook early on and if he produces the counter-punching class we became so used to he should dominate this fight and force a late stoppage tonight. He has to.
