In a marking time fight, former two-weight world titleholder Carl Frampton scored a routine seventh-round stoppage of late-substitute Darren Traynor at the BT Sports studios in London on Saturday. The bout was scheduled for 10 and was contested at lightweight.

Frampton, who has held world titles at 122 and 126 pounds, floored Traynor with a terrific left hook to the body at the end of Round 6 and the writing was the wall. The Belfast man continued to blast the midsection in the seventh, and after slipping a jab he whipped in another left hook to the liver and Traynor signaled to referee Michael Alexander that he’d had enough. The official time was 1:00.

“I was far from my best,” acknowledged Frampton (28-2, 15 knockouts) in an interview with BT Sport in the U.K. “I had to make sure that complacency didn’t creep in at all. It’s a potential banana skin, nobody is expecting Darren to beat me. He’s a tough kid.”

There were one or two nifty right hand counters from Frampton in a quiet first round, but Traynor was alert enough to avoid strong punishment. The Scotsman, who took the fight at a week’s notice after original opponent Varham Vardanyan was declined a visa, had sporadic success early, but Frampton produced the superior work, particularly with the left hand.

However, despite “The Jackal” being light years ahead in terms of quality, Traynor was the much bigger man. The Aberdeen-based fighter had captured a fringe domestic title at 140 pounds, so Frampton’s renowned sharp-shooting to the head didn’t have anywhere near the effect it would have on an opponent of comparable size.

And that’s where experience comes in. As soon as Frampton switched the location of his attack, the fight was essentially over. In obvious agony, Traynor (16-4, 7 KOs) did very well to survive the sixth-round knockdown, and while he didn’t go down in the seventh, the finishing shot sucked every bit of ambition out of him.

In a bid to become Ireland’s first ever three-weight world champion, Frampton will now set his sights on WBO junior lightweight titleholder Jamel Herring. That bout has been provisionally set for December 5 at the bubble inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In order to make it a reality, southpaw Herring must first get past Jonathan Oquendo on September 5.

“We’ve been talking about this fight for a long time,” said Frampton.

Tom Gray is Associate Editor for Ring Magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @Tom_Gray_Boxing

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