While much of the focus on Saturday night will be on Amir Khan’s return to the ring, he isn’t the only British former world champion fighting this weekend.
Carl Frampton can win the WBO interim featherweight belt by beating the experienced Nonito Donaire in Belfast’s SSE Arena, and set up a much bigger fight against current champion Oscar Valdez.
The Northern Irishman, who’s held titles at both super-bantamweight and featherweight in the past, has only fought once since losing his WBA belt to Leo Santa Cruz in January 2017.
He saw off Horacio Garcia in a 10-round decision last November, but it wasn’t a great performance by the 31-year-old, and he’ll need to be much better against Donaire.
The Filipino is a former four-weight world champion and won 30 fights in a row between 2001 and 2013.
Donaire has lost three of his last 10 bouts, but he does have 24 KO wins to his name and has to be taken seriously by Frampton.
Ultimately, though, the hometown fighter should get the win here.
Frampton proved with wins over Kiko Martinez, Scott Quigg and Santa Cruz that he is one of the best featherweights in the world, and the 2016 ESPN Fighter of the Year should get over a couple of disappointing performances with a stronger showing this weekend.
He’s the quicker fighter of the two and still carries plenty of power, even though his record of 14 knockouts in 25 fights isn’t intimidating.
Expect Frampton to land the bigger shots, control the centre of the ring and bully Donaire on the way to a comfortable decision win – his fifth in six fights.
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