Carl Frampton will need to produce a ‘career-best’ performance in April to beat Nonito Donaire in order to fulfil his desire to bring a world title fight to Windsor Park this summer.
Belfast’s two-weight world champion goes toe to toe with Donaire on 21 April at the SSE Odyssey Arena in a featherweight contest, which should prove a world title eliminator.
And while Frampton believes that this upcoming clash against ‘Filipino Flash’ Donaire is a high-risk/high-reward opportunity, he also admits that he will need to perform at his optimum level to see off his veteran opponent.
"I need to make sure that I’m going to put in the performance of my career, which it might take to win this fight," said Frampton.
"I just take it one fight at a time. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but I’m going to do everything I can in training camp and in my preparation for this fight to make sure that I’m ready."
Frampton is eyeing a future date against the winner of the upcoming Lee Selby-Josh Warrington IBF world-title fight or whoever emerges from a bout between his old rival Scott Quigg and WBO world champion Oscar Valdez.
"There’s a lot on the line," admitted 'The Jackal'. "But these are all things that are in the future and there’s only one fight that I’m focused on at the minute.
"Nonito Donaire is a future Hall of Famer, a fantastic fighter… I need fights like this to get up for and I need big names.
"Nonito’s an amazing talent, a four-weight world champion. He can punch and he doesn’t just knock people over, he’s put guys to sleep before. But that gives me a wee bit of a fear factor and I think that’s when I’m going to be at my best."
But while Donaire is a forty-two-fight veteran and perhaps past his absolute peak, the 35-year-old remains determined to reclaim world honours and echoed his opponent’s comments when insisting that Frampton will bring out the best in him.
Both men were previously recognised as Fighter of the Year by the Ring magazine, ESPN and the Boxing Writers’ Association of America, with Frampton awarded that honour for 2016, while Donaire picked up the same gongs in 2012.
"We need an opponent we can truly respect and at the same time you have that voice behind you that says, ‘this guy is tough, this guy is good and anything can happen’," said Donaire.
"It allows the warrior within us to come out and that’s something that we’ll show on April 21st.
"One thing’s for sure, and I can see it from looking into Carl’s eyes, we’re both warriors and we’re willing to give it everything we’ve got for this fight. At the moment age is only a number for me because I’m very inspired to be here."
While Frampton struggled at times during his most recent 10-round points win over Mexican Horacio Garcia last November, in a bout that marked the end of a 10-month lay-off following a number of changes to his team, the Tigers Bay native believes that victory will stand to him ahead of his April outing.
"Considering the year I’ve had, looking back on it, it wasn’t a bad performance," said Frampton, who is now backed by MTK Global and training with former pro Jamie Moore.
"I think that last fight is going to be a blessing in disguise for me.
"My objective is to win a world title, I’m hoping to fight for a world title in the summer and what better opponent to get you ready for that other than Nonito Donaire?
"What would be the point in fighting a knock-over job? I don’t think that would be good for me or for boxing, so it’s just great to be involved on these big occasions."
The undercard is also set to match the occasion with three thrilling all-Irish domestic fights confirmed today for the 21 April bill.
Dubliner Jono Carroll (15-0, 2KOs) will travel to meet Belfast’s Marco McCullough (18-4, 11KOs) in a 12-round super-featherweight showdown for the IBF European title, while Tyrone McKenna (15-0-1, 6KOs) and light-welterweight rival Philip Sutcliffe Jr (14-2, 9KOs) are set to clash in another long-awaited Belfast v Dublin bout.
An exciting All-Ireland middleweight fight will also take place as Tyrone’s WBO European champion Conrad Cummings (12-1-1) and Dublin’s Irish champion Luke Keeler (13-2, 5KO) do battle.
Further undercard announcements will be made in the coming weeks.
