EDDIE HEARN is “really confident” that that a unification showdown between WBA super-bantamweight titlist Scott Quigg and IBF king Carl Frampton will take place in February.
The showdown has long been high on the wishlist of fight fans from all over the world, but looked destined to remain a fantasy after Hearn and Frampton’s manager Barry McGuigan repeatedly failed to agree a deal. The latest round of negotiations, though, seem to have produced positive results.
“I don’t give up on any fights,” Hearn told Boxing News. “All of a sudden there’s one conversation and the whole thing can turn on a sixpence. All you need in those kind of negotiations is a little bit of rope to go back to the fighter and say, ‘He’s given in on that, I need you to give in on that,’ and all of a sudden you’re on a roll. Then people start sniffing it, and you suddenly think, ‘This could get made here.’ I’m really confident that fight will get made in February.”
The proposed early-2016 date for the Frampton-Quigg showdown appeared under threat when Wladimir Klitschko indicated that his re-scheduled date with Tyson Fury may be put back until January or February, and in turn take up a potential PPV slot for the super-bantamweights. However, with Klitschko confirming the Fury fight will occur on November 28, Hearn is confident the door is now open for Frampton-Quigg to at last be made.
“It’s very close, very close,” said Hearn. “That’s a fight that we’re looking at for January or February. If the Klitschko-Fury fight had been moved to February, which is another part of the jigsaw, it would have ruled that fight out. But the news that Klitschko can fight in November means Quigg-Frampton is very close now; it’s beyond 50-50 in terms of likelihood. I really think it will happen in February.”
