2018 is the year Carl Frampton looks to cement his legacy. The former two-weight world champion has his eyes on another world title fight and hopes his bout against Nonito Donaire will lead to that.
it was confirmed today that Frampton will face the Filipino four-weight world champion in a featherweight bout at Belfast’s SSE Odyssey Arena on 21 April.
Will be an honour to share the ring with a legend and future hall of famer @filipinoflash. The biggest away fighter EVER to fight in Belfast. pic.twitter.com/ZF5w4VnE8s
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) January 9, 2018
Frampton lost his belt in a closely fought rematch against Leo Santa Cruz last year and then underwent a controversial split with Cyclone Promotions and Barry McGuigan. Speaking on Off the Ball tonight, Frampton revealed the criticism he received really frustrated him, because "you got to have a few clowns pop up now and again."
I keep an eye on social media and stuff. To be honest, I don't like being criticised and I don't like people thinking that I'm taking easy fights. This is a tough business. You have to take risks sometimes.
I don't like to be criticised and people do get criticised all the time and people can brush that off easy but it irks me a little bit.
Frampton said he hoped to kick on and put a tough year behind him.
Legacy is important as well. I've never been doubted more than I have in recent times, there are a lot of people doubting me. I want to shut them up really. I want to show them I still got a lot to give. After a bad performance against Santa Cruz, that's all it was a bad performance and I lost the fight and then a mediocre performance where I won the fight, after a bad year I want to prove the doubters wrong.
Frampton also spoke about his current legal situation with a McGuigan high court London suit and countersuit, confirming he is unsure how long the case will take.
Things haven't worked out the way I wanted them to work out, I had a lot of good times and a lot of fun times with the McGuigan's. I'll remember some of the nights we had fondly for the rest of my life.
You can listen to the interview in full here.
