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Boxing

16th Nov 2017

Carl Frampton didn’t seem overly impressed with journalist’s fight cancellation joke

The rest of the room really enjoyed it

Ben Kiely

August wasn’t the greatest month of Carl Frampton’s career.

Former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton was scheduled for his highly-anticipated Belfast return. He was booked to fight Andreas Guttierrez in a title-eliminator bout, but after missing weight by 1lb, Frampton ruled himself out of the prize of a title fight against champion Gary Russell Jr.

The fight ended up getting called off entirely because of an accident Gutierrez suffered the night before the fight. The Mexican slipped in the shower of his hotel room and suffered cuts to his face that forced him to pull out of the contest.

It was a devastating blow at the time, but fortunately, Frampton was eventually able to find humour in a bleak situation.

The good people of Belfast didn’t have to wait long for Frampton’s comeback to get rebooked. He was rescheduled to take on Horacio Garcia in the SSE Arena on November 15, headlining a card that also featured Jamie Conlan’s IBF super flyweight title shot.

At Thursday’s press conference promoting ‘Frampton Reborn’, one journalist opened the line of question with a lighthearted joke about the unfortunate events that delayed Frampton’s return.

“Bearing in mind what happened the last time he was going to fight, have you done all the health and safety checks in all the showers in all the hotels?”

Jono Carroll and Paddy Barnes got a giggle, with promoter Frank Warren and commentator John Rawling enjoying it more than most. They certainly found it funnier than Frampton, who gave them a bit of a glare before maybe, sort of, kind of cracking a smile.