Former two-division world titleholder Carl Frampton suffered a broken metacarpal in his left hand in a freak, non-boxing incident Monday, forcing him to withdraw from his fight against Emmanuel Dominguez.
Frampton was due to have the first fight of his newly signed co-promotional deal with Top Rank in the 10-round featherweight main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card on Saturday (main card at 10 p.m. ET with preliminary bouts beginning at 6:30 p.m.) at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, where Frampton has already been for more than a week.
But on Monday, just hours after Frampton wrote on social media that he had finished his last hard training session by running on a treadmill and that “it’s fight week now, training done, time to focus on the fight,” he suffered the injury.
According to Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti, Frampton was hanging out in the lobby of the fight hotel when a concrete pillar fell through a curtain and smashed into a table that Frampton had his hands on.
“It is obviously one of the freakiest accidents you can come up with,” Moretti said. “In all my years in boxing, broken hands are a common thing after sparring or hitting a heavy bag, but it is not usual that a concrete pillar lands on a boxer’s hand.
“I got an incident report from the front desk of the hotel and saw pictures. It’s just incredible. You can’t make this s— up, nor would you want to. Carl is extremely disappointed. He was looking forward to the fight. Everything was going great, and then this. I’ve heard of slipping and sliding punches but not concrete pillars. This is a new one for all us.”
Frampton tweeted a statement indicating his disappointment with the bizarre turn of events.
“A large ornament, in the hotel lobby, was knocked over accidentally and hit me on the left hand, fracturing the 5th metacarpal,” Frampton said. “I’m extremely disappointed for the travelling support and for myself and my team. I’ve put everything into this camp, I’ve been away from my amazing wife and kids for most of it and it all feels like a waste.
“Although it was out of my control I’d like to apologise to Emmanuel, [management team] MTK Global, Top Rank, my team, my travelling support and to my wife and kids for being away so long.
“I’m absolutely devastated.”
Frampton also tweeted photos and video of the apparent aftermath.
Frampton (26-2, 15 KOs), 32, of Northern Ireland, was the 2016 consensus fighter of the year, and has won world titles at junior featherweight (where he unified two belts) and featherweight. He was seeking to rebound from a competitive decision loss challenging Josh Warrington for his featherweight world title in December.
The fight with Dominguez was to be Frampton’s fourth in the United States, including both of his memorable battles with Leo Santa Cruz in world title fights in 2016 and 2017.
Although Frampton-Dominguez is off, the show will go on with the original 10-round co-feature between former secondary junior lightweight world titlist Jason Sosa and Haskell Lydell Rhodes moving up to the main event position.
Sosa (22-3-4, 15 KOs), 31, of Camden, New Jersey, is aiming for a third straight win since back-to-back losses in 2017, a ninth-round knockout challenging then-junior lightweight world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko, followed by a controversial majority decision loss to former two-division titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa. Rhodes (27-3-1, 13 KOs), 31, of Las Vegas, is aiming for a second win in a row.
Puerto Rican-born, New York-based middleweight slugger Edgar Berlanga (11-0, 11 KOs), 22, who has won all of his fights by first-round knockout, will have his fight moved up to the co-feature position. He will face Gregory Trenel (11-4-2, 3 KOs), 28, of France, who has won two fights in a row and never been knocked out, in an eight-round bout.
Also on the main card, two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez, a 25-year-old southpaw who defected and recently signed a multiyear promotional contract with Top Rank, will make his professional debut. Fighting out of Gulfport, Florida, Ramirez, who won the flyweight gold medal in 2012 and the bantamweight gold medal in 2016, will face Adan Gonzalez (4-2-2, 2 KOs), 22, of Denver, in a four-round featherweight bout.
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