Carl Frampton has been forced to drop out of his main event fight against Emmanuel Dominguez at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Saturday because of a "freak accident."
According to Top Rank, the featherweight fractured the metacarpal in his left hand Monday morning at the hotel after someone accidently knocked over a concrete structure that struck Frampton. The 32-year-old boxer also described the structure as a "large ornament in the hotel lobby" on his Instagram account.
“I’m gutted, gutted for the people that paid their hard-earned money to make the trip to support me," said Frampton in a Top Rank press release statement. "I’ve spent the summer away from my family training for the fight, all a waste now because of this freak accident.”
The Belfast, Northern Ireland fighter also expressed his sheer disappointment over the situation via another IG post, in which he showed the structure that fell on his hand.
"I know people expect you to say this," Frampton said in the IG post, "about your training camps being good and perfect, but this is the most disciplined I've ever been in sparring, in listening to instructions, in bag work and everything. I've just been disciplined. And then I go and get my f—ing arm smashed on a stupid bit of whatever the f— it is. ... You couldn't make it up."
This was supposed to be the first fight for Frampton (26-2, 15 KOs) since his three-fight winning streak was snapped in a loss to Josh Warrington by unanimous decision last December.
With Frampton out Saturday, Jason Sosa vs. Haskell Lydell Rhodes in super featherweight action has been elevated to main event on ESPN+, while middleweights Edgar Berlanga and Gregory Trenel will slug it out in the co-feature.