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Jamel Herring vs. Carl Frampton Press Conference
History will be made Saturday when Jamel "Semper Fi" Herring
puts his WBO junior lightweight world title on the line
against Belfast's former two-weight world champion Carl "The
Jackal" Frampton at Caesars Bluewaters Dubai. This will be
Dubai's first-ever first world title bout, and if Frampton
is victorious, he would become the first Irish boxer to
become a three-weight world champion. Herring, meanwhile, is
looking to notch the third successful defense of the title
he won from Masayuki Ito in May 2019.
Herring-Frampton will stream live and exclusively in the
United States on ESPN+ (4 p.m. ET), with undercard action
scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
Before fight night, this is what both fighters had to say.
Jamel Herring
"I was able to stay focused with all the postponements
because I had that motivation and hunger. I know this is
still a big fight. I didn't want to let it go."
"Yes, a win over Frampton would be a career-defining
milestone. You want to win a world title. OK, we win the
world title. Well, what's next? We had to successfully
defend our title to be considered a real champion. I'm
getting to the conversation of, 'Oh, you want to face the
other champions and the other big names,' and Carl Frampton
is a two-division world champion. He has done great things
in his career."
"Since November 2019, this fight has been talked about, and
this is my moment. This is what I've worked for. This is
what I've been asking for. This is a big fight for me now."
"I know a win will obviously push my career up, and I'm just
excited to finally get in there with another good champion
that I can topple, hopefully, this weekend."
"I don't have any doubts with the fight happening in Dubai
because I'm a U.S. Marine. I've fought everywhere, in terms
of the battlefield or in the ring. If you guys remember, I
was willing to face him in Belfast with no issue, in front
of thousands of people. I was willing to give him that home
field advantage because I wanted the fight that bad that I
didn't really care where the fight was at. As long as we had
a ring and some gloves, I didn't care."
"The way I win this fight is just being me, the Jamel that
won the world championship. I have to bring that hunger
back. I feel like my back is against the wall, even as the
champion."
Carl Frampton
"It seems like we've been talking about this fight for well
over a year now. I feel like it was beneficial for me to get
out here early. I had a sparring partner with me. I finished
preparation here. I think it was beneficial to get used to
my surroundings and the heat {more} than anything else. I
finished off what has been a very, very good camp."
"People will talk about this hand injury that delayed the
fight for a little while, but it was something very, very
small. There's no real issue, and I finished off sparring. I
kind of put some 'TLC' on my hand for a week or eight days,
and I was back sparring, hitting the heavy bags. But the
camp, apart from that, has been top-notch, very good, no
complaints. I'm just where I need to be right now, and I'm
looking forward to the fight."
"I'm very proud of what I've done in my career so far, but
the chance to go down as the only ever three-weight world
champion from the whole island of Ireland — one of the only
British fighters to ever do it as well — you join an
absolute elite bunch of global fighters to do that. I want
to do that. I'm so determined to make that happen on the
night, and personally, it will mean the world to me."
"I gotta expect the best Jamel Herring there's ever been. We
look at Jamel's last performance {against Jonathan Oquendo},
he gets a bit of criticism from that, from the media and
from other people. My own performance wasn't brilliant in my
last fight {last August against Darren Traynor}. I think
both of us need to be a lot better in this fight to come out
victorious. I'm prepared to be better. Hopefully, Jamel is
as well, and I think it's going to be a good fight."
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