Carl Frampton said loudly and clearly with his performance on Saturday, “I’m still here.”
Frampton dominated relative novice Tyler McCreary from beginning to end, putting down the Toledo fighter twice with body shots and winning a shutout 10-round decision at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
And Frampton, who hadn’t fought in almost a year, said he did it even though he broke his hand in training twice and might’ve done it again early in the fight Saturday.
On top of that, he was fighting in a new division, junior lightweight. The fighters agreed on a 128-pound catch weight.
Frampton dominated his taller opponent, who had never been in a scheduled 10-rounder, in every conceivable way but the body shots were the most telling blows.
“That was the plan from the start, to target the body,” said Frampton, a two-division titleholder. “He’s pretty tall and we saw gaps. And my hand was not great coming into the fight. The body is softer. I feel like I hurt (the hand) again in the second round. That’s why it wasn’t the most exciting fight. I wanted to be safe with the hand.
“… I knew I had a lot of support. There was no way I wasn’t fighting.”
McCreary (16-1-1, 7 knockouts) was a good amateur, meaning he brought some skills into the ring. However, he seemed to be overwhelmed by both a crafty veteran and the moment.
McCreary would’ve been well served to fight Frampton from the outside but had no hope of keeping the Irish fighter off of him.
Frampton (27-2, 15 KOs) simply pounded the body, landed some eye-catching punches to the head and won round after round.
He landed a left to the body early in Round 6, forcing McCreary to take a knee. Then, in Round 9, a vicious double left to same spot forced McCreary to a knee again. He got up and finished the fight but never came close to solving the puzzle Frampton presented.
McCreary lost every round on all three cards.
Frampton was coming off a surprising unanimous-decision loss to Josh Warrington last December, which had the 32-year-old questioning his future in the sport. His performance on Saturday was a solid step toward another title shot.
Frampton’s dream is to win a belt in a third division. A possible opponent is 130-pound titleholder Jamel Herring, who was in the arena for the fight Saturday.
“He’s a two-division champion for a reason,” Herring said at ringside. “He did what he had to do. Especially after a year off and after some setbacks, he looked good. … I would love to fight him.”
That’s music to Frampton’s ears.