Carl Frampton is fighting on his home country of Ireland again come April against a former world champion.
Promoter Frank Warren announced in a press conference that Frampton will fight Nonito Donaire on April 7 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Ireland.
Donaire lost his WBO super bantamweight title against Jessie Magdaleno last year on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jessie Vargas pay-per-view card. Donaire signed a promotional deal with Richard Schaefer’s Ringstar Sports a few months ago and fought on the September 23 World Boxing Super Series card in San Antonio, Texas, beating Ruben Garcia Hernandez via unanimous decision. Donaire is also just one of 16 men in modern boxing history to have won a world title in four different weight classes.
Frampton has been on a comeback trail since losing his WBA featherweight world title against Leo Santa Cruz this past January, a rematch from their summer 2016 slugfest. Frampton rebounded from that loss to beat Horacio Garcia via unanimous decision in Belfast back in November. Frampton is also a former super bantamweight world champion.
The winner of this bout will likely have a world title fight in the near future. Frampton and Donaire are ranked in the WBC’s top four in the featherweight rankings with the world champion being Gary Russell Jr. Frampton is also ranked in the top 10 of the WBA (No. 3), IBF (No. 3) and WBO (No. 7) featherweight rankings.
The fight will be televised on BT Sport in the United Kingdom with no U.S. broadcasting plans announced for the moment. No other fights on the card has been announced.
