Carl Frampton injures hand, withdraws from Emmanuel Dominguez fight

Carl Frampton’s Top Rank debut will have to wait a little longer. The former two-division champion suffered a broken hand today in what was reportedly a freak accident; according to John Evans, an ornament fell on “The Jackal’s” hand while he was having coffee. I know this sounds like someone’s playing a prank on us, but Matthew Macklin chimed in to confirm the news.

Whatever the case, he’s been pulled from Saturday’s ESPN+ main event against Emmanuel Dominguez. The show will go on with Jason Sosa vs. Haskell Lydell Rhodes in the main event.

This isn’t Frampton’s (26-2, 15 KO) first bit of misfortune in recent days. He’d been gunning for a winter title shot against WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez, but the latter recently elected to move to 130 pounds after the sanctioning body ordered him to face Shakur Stevenson, citing his increasing difficulty with making the weight. Stevenson will presumably face #2 Joet Gonzalez for the vacant belt, and seeing as he’s also under the Top Rank banner, Frampton could theoretically still get his title shot before too long.

Provided he doesn’t run afoul of anymore inadvisably heavy tchotchkes, of course.