'Warrington Is Stronger Than Santa Cruz'

Carl Frampton reflects on his upset loss and looks to the future with Declan Warrington

- Declan Warrington

IN the immediate aftermath of his surprise defeat to Josh Warrington in December, Carl Frampton indicated he was going to retire. But, five weeks later, the Northern Irishman insists he’s not ready to walk away just yet.

What are your reflections on what was an unexpected defeat, by Josh Warrington?

We spoke a bit about our plans and I told Jamie [Moore, my trainer] ‘I was s**t’ and he said ‘It wasn’t one of your better performances but there were things you done well’, but I’ll have to watch it because it didn’t feel like I did anything f**king well.

People were surprised it went 12 rounds after the opening two so I suppose that’s some sort of positive. I’m still disappointed, it’ll take a while to get over it, but credit to Josh. The tactics were very good, as they were against [Lee] Selby. They’ve a tactical genius in there somewhere.

Maybe I was getting carried away with my power, which I don’t have any right to do because I haven’t knocked too many out at featherweight. You talk to anyone I spar; they’ll tell you I punch very hard, but the knockouts aren’t coming. I thought Warrington would be busy, but I’d hit him hard, and he wouldn’t be as ready to come forward.

So what needs to change for you to recover?