Frampton fight with Herring postponed due to hand injury

Belfast boxer Carl Frampton says a minor hand injury is the reason he requested a postponement to his long-awaited fight with Jamel Herring.

The Jackal was aiming to become a 3-weight world champion on the 27th of February, but has acted on medical advice to seek a delay.

A date is yet to be confirmed, but it's expected their fight will go ahead at the end of March.

In a statement, Frampton said: “It is just a bit of a twinge to my hand, nothing too serious but I have seen a specialist and his advice was to rest it. So I asked about the possibility of a postponement to the fight and it was agreed to.

“It gives me a better chance because I will be going into the fight with two good hands after taking the advice from the specialist. It is nothing major though and there is no fracture.

“I did go into a fight with a hand injury against Tyler McCreary and ended up requiring surgery afterwards on both hands. No disrespect to Tyler, but Jamel Herring is a world champion and at a higher level so I need to be at my best. That is what I intend to be.

“I haven’t been able to spar or hit the heavy bags for a while. From next week I have been given the go-ahead to start doing that again. I have still been training, doing loads of running, shadow boxing and hitting the paddles as well, which kind of replicates the pads, but I have not hit anything solid for the last two weeks.

“It wouldn’t have sat right with me to pull out if people had spent their hard earned money on tickets and travel, but this is completely different and I just want to give myself the best opportunity to win and that is it.

“I would like to thank Frank and Bob for making this possible, plus Jamel as well for his understanding. It is something that just happens in boxing and I am thankful we have been able to postpone it.”