Carl Frampton did his part. Now it’s up to Jamel Herring.
Frampton stopped Darren Traynor with a body shot exactly one minute into the seventh round of a scheduled 10-round lightweight bout without spectators Saturday at York Hall in London.
If Herring successfully defends his junior lightweight title against Jonathan Oquendo on Sept. 5, he and Frampton, a former two-division titleholder, are expected to tangle sometime in November.
A victory over Herring would give Frampton a major title in a third weight division, bolstering the notion that he’s the most-accomplished Irish fighter of all time.
Traynor (16-4, 7 KOs) took the fight on one week’s notice when original opponent Vahram Vardanyan of Latvia couldn’t get a visa because of the coronavirus pandemic but looked like he belonged in the ring with Frampton, at least for the first half of the fight.
The Scot didn’t land many punches against his slick, athletic opponent but neither did Frampton, who seemed flat after more than eight months out of the ring.
However, that changed in an instant in Round 6. Frampton, who had picked up his intensity and started landed jabs with some consistency, put Traynor flat on his face with a left to the body toward the end of the round. He beat the count but suddenly seemed vulnerable.
Then came a strange conclusion to the fight. Frampton (28-2, 16 KOs) hurt Traynor with another left to the gut. He didn’t go down but grimaced and threw his fist in the air, as if to say, “I’m done.” And referee Michael Alexander obliged him, waiving off the fight.
Frampton wasn’t ecstatic about his performance but he was content to have gotten the job done.
“I’m happy to get the win,” he said. “I will say I was far from my best. People talked about rounds, about doing the rounds. I don’t think it’s going to harm me doing the rounds. If I had a chance to take him out in the first round, I wouldn’t done it. But I’m saying that the rounds were good. He’s a tough kid. …
“I had a decent game plan,” he went on. “I was trying to step back, not rush things. Once I started landing my jab – I hurt him a few times with the jab, as well – and then the body shots in the second half of the fight ….”
Traynor, a few inches taller than Frampton, has a similar frame to that of Herring. Traynor fights from an orthodox stance while Herring is a southpaw.
Still, Frampton said Traynor probably prepared him better for the coming challenge than the shorter Vardanyan would have. Frampton is 5-foot-5 (165 cms), Herring 5-10 (178 cms).
“He was a better opponent for Herring than my original opponent because I think [Vardanyan] was around my height, maybe a little bit shorter,” Frampton said. “Darren isn’t a southpaw but the dimensins are similar.
“I know I need to be a lot better for Herring. It’s good to get rounds done. And my hands are fine. No issues there. It’s onward and upward.”
In a preliminary, two-time Irish Olympian Mick Conlan (14-0, 8 KOs) overcame two point deductions for low blows to stop French veteran Sofiane Takoucht (35-5-1, 13 KOs) 1:54 into the 10th and final round of a featherweight bout.
The fight appeared to be headed toward a decision when Conlan caught Takoucht with a big left that hurt him and followed with a flurry that prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Conlan’s plan is to move down to the junior featherweight division, where he hopes to get his first chance to fight for a world title.
“I didn’t mean to throw the low blows, but I just love to hit them in the sweet spot and there’s a fine line,” Conlan told BT Sport. “It is hard to adjust mid-feet, and a lot of the shots must have swayed low. I am happy with the win, though.
“I don’t have a clue what happens next. I leave it to my team. But I will be ready. I did what I said I would do. I said I would break him down and take him out. It might have been the last round, but I did it.”
In other bouts, Troy Williamson (15-0-1, 11 KOs) defeated Harry Scarff (8-2, 1 KO) by a close unanimous decision in a 10-round junior middleweight bout; junior lightweight prospect Archie Sharp (19-0, 9 KOs) outpointed Jeff Ofori (10-3-1, 3 KOs) — 96-95 referee decision — in a 10-round lightweight bout; and Paddy Donovan (4-0, 3 KOs) stopped Des Newton (8-16, 2 KOs) 1:31 into a scheduled six-round welterweight bout.