Carl Frampton has insisted he is not looking past Andres Gutierrez ahead of their Belfast bout on Saturday, with the two-time world champion claiming consistent speculation over his potential future opponents is "disrespectful" towards the Mexican.
Frampton returns to fight in his home city for the first time in nearly two-and-a-half years this weekend in what will mark the 30-year-old’s ring return after his first professional loss to Leo Santa Cruz in their WBA world featherweight title fight last January.
Having defeated Santa Cruz last year, negotiations for a rubber-match were unsuccessful, while Frampton had also been linked to a clash against IBF world champion Lee Selby of Wales.
Saturday’s featherweight bout against 24-year-old Gutierrez, who carries a 35-1-1 record, will act as an eliminator for a shot at WBC world champion Gary Russell, but Frampton hit back at questions about his future plans, despite the fact that victory this weekend is likely to see him book a title shot against one of the aforementioned world champions later this year.
"Andres Gutierrez is the man on my mind at the minute and after the fight we can look at other guys."
"I think it’s a bit disrespectful. We’re at a press conference with Andres Gutierrez, he’s the opponent I want to focus on and no-one else," said Frampton at today’s final pre-fight press conference when addressing a query about a possible title fight to end 2017.
"Andres Gutierrez is the man on my mind at the minute and after the fight we can look at other guys," added the Irishman, who believes Gutierrez represents a real threat to his ring future, despite the fact that bookmakers have priced the Mexican as a 10/1 underdog.
Competing in his first Belfast bout since his successful world-title defence against American Chris Avalos in February 2015, Frampton believes a home crowd at the SSE Odyssey Arena will create an atmosphere that Gutierrez has never previously experienced.
"I don’t think the atmosphere can be recreated anywhere else in the world," said the Belfast boy. "No matter what anybody opponent says, they’ll say that they’ll deal with the atmosphere, but I think it has an effect on them. It certainly has a positive effect on me, but I think it has a negative effect on the opponent."
Gutierrez, a 24-year-old Queretaro native, made his debut at the tender age of 15, going on to record 25 stoppage victories in 37 pro bouts with his only loss coming against former world super-flyweight champion Cristian Mijares on a majority point decision last year.
"I respect Andres, he’s a top fighter and he’s had more knockout wins that I’ve had fights," noted Frampton. "I seen a stat that he was 5-0 as a pro before his 16th birthday, so they breed them tough in Mexico and he’s a hard man.
"He’s up for it and if he beats me, it turns him into a huge name and he becomes a big name in boxing.
"But this is my city. I respect him a lot, but this is my city. I’m the boss and I’m going to win."
The visitor, who failed to make the 126lb featherweight limit ahead of his loss to Mirajes last year, insisted he is prepared after a tough two-month training, despite a relatively late arrival into Belfast earlier this week.
"I respect him a lot, but this is my city. I’m the boss and I’m going to win."
"We’re ready for this fight, it’s been really tough training over the past two months. The first month was in high altitude training and then in Mexico City, which is also high altitude, so it’s been really hard keeping it up.
"But now because of this I’m confident of being able to win this fight, all this training has brought me here," said Gutierrez, who claimed he has no concerns about making weight ahead of Friday morning’s weigh-in. "Due to this hard training, it wasn’t hard to lose weight and we’re ready and confident about this fight," added the Mexican.
Frampton’s manager Barry McGuigan has labelled the fight as a must-win contest for his protégé if he is to go on to regain a world title or fulfil his ambition of becoming a three-weight champion.
"This guy will give him a lot of trouble, but I believe 100 per cent that Carl will win spectacularly and win a world title again, but he must win on Saturday night," said McGuigan, whose Cyclone Promotions set-up has a number of fighters on the undercard.
Conrad Cummings defends his WBO European title against Poland’s Robert Swierzbinski and the Tyrone middleweight claims he is not distracted by speculation linking him to a potential bout against world champion Billy Joe Saunders.
"I’m fully focused on Saturday," said Cummings. "I put the weight of the world on my shoulders early on in my career and it showed in my performances… I’m going to beat this guy and beat him well and move on, I’m fully focused on that," added the Coalisland native.
We'll have a live blog on Frampton v Gutierrez on RTÉ Sport Online and the News Now App from 9.30pm on Saturday.
