Carl Frampton Opponent Announced for Windsor Park Summer-Showdown

Carl Frampton Opponent Announced for Windsor Park Summer-Showdown

By Dan McConnell

The summer showdown on August the 18th in Windsor Park, Northern Ireland is just around the corner. This afternoon Belfast-Boxers Carl Frampton, Paddy Barnes and the world’s media found out who their opponents would be for the hotly-anticipated Windsor Park card at the press conference in Belfast.

It was announced that Tigers Bay-native Frampton, the current WBO interm Featherweight Champion will face the undefeated former Australian Olympian Luke Jackson. Frampton has wanted to fight in the Northern Ireland’s national stadium for a number of years and it looks like his dream is finally close to reality.

The 33-year-old Aussie who is a 2012 Olympian, possesses a professional record of 16-0 with seven knockouts. Frampton wanted the fight to be for a title, opponents included newly crowned IBF Featherweight Champion Josh Warrington after his stunning defeat over former champion Lee Selby. However Warringon wouldn’t be medically or physically available, despite his interest for a future matchup with The Jackal.

Tyson Fury’s comeback continues on the undercard of this fight night. The former unified World Heavyweight Champion returned to the ring on Saturday 9th June following a 32-month absence to defeat Albanian Sefer Seferi after four rounds. Fury will look to improve on his last performance and come closer to the top of the Heavyweight title picture. David Price could be an interesting matchup for The Gypsy King due to their history, an opponent will be announced in due course.

Former triple Olympian and Belfast’s own Paddy Barnes (5-0) also features on the card. Barnes books a dream matchup as he faces WBC Flyweight Champion Cristofer Rosales (27-3) in his first professional title fight and will have the home support behind him.

Frank Warren has done extremely well to put together this card considering Frampton and Fury are two main-event calibre fighters on their own. He described Belfast as ‘the fighting capital of Europe’ at the press conference showing his desire to provide a great card for fans. Also to get Paddy Barnes his first title shot in-front of his home crowd against an experienced Nicaragua in Rosales is a huge achievement.

Saturday August 18th should be a huge night for boxing in Belfast’s Windsor Park. The card will be broadcast live on BT Sport for fight fans, times to be announced.