Former two-division world titleholder Carl Frampton’s fight on Aug. 10, the first of the co-promotional deal he signed with Top Rank in March, will come against Emmanuel Dominguez, Top Rank announced on Tuesday.
They will meet in a scheduled 10-round featherweight in the main event of a card on ESPN+ (main card at 10 p.m. ET with preliminary bouts beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET) at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia.
Frampton, the 2016 consensus fighter of the year, who was won world titles at junior featherweight, where he unified two belts, and featherweight, will look to bounce back from a competitive decision loss challenging Josh Warrington for his featherweight world title in December.
Top Rank, which co-promotes Frampton with Frank Warren, hopes to line Frampton up for a title shot against Oscar Valdez later in the year, as long as he defeats heavy underdog Dominguez.
“Dominguez is a tall, young, hungry featherweight, so I’ll need to be on my game,” the 5-foot-4 Frampton said of his 5-9 opponent. “The premise of an Oscar Valdez fight is dangling in front of me, so I want to go out and show the world that I’ve still got what it takes to be a world champion.
“Winning is always the most important thing, but I want to do it in style. It’s great to be boxing stateside again, and Philly, in particular, has so much boxing history. I won’t disappoint.”
Frampton (26-2, 15 KOs), 32, of Northern Ireland, has boxed three times in the United States, including both of his memorable battles with Leo Santa Cruz in world title fights in 2016 and 2017.
Dominguez (26-8-2, 18 KOs), 25, of Mexico, has won two in a row, albeit against sub-.500 opponents, since suffering a third-round knockout loss to Jordan Gill on March 2 in England. He is aiming to wreck any notion of a Frampton fight against Valdez (26-0, 20 KOs), 28, of Mexico.
“Carl Frampton is already looking ahead to an Oscar Valdez fight, which gives me added motivation,” Dominguez said. “I am not a stepping stone. I am coming to Philadelphia prepared to ruin Carl’s plans.”
Top Rank also confirmed that Philadelphia heavyweight Sonny Conto (3-0, 3 KOs), Philadelphia featherweight Donald Smith (9-0, 6 KOs) and Puerto Rican-born, New York-based middleweight Edgar Berlanga (11-0, 11 KOs) will appear on the undercard against opponents to be determined.
Although the deal is not quite finalized, former junior featherweight world titlist Jessie Magdaleno (26-1, 18 KOs), 27, of Las Vegas, is supposed to appear in the co-feature against an opponent to be determined. The fight will mark Magdaleno’s return to the arena where he lost world title by 11th-round upset knockout to Isaac Dogboe April 2018. Magdaleno has won his only fight since, returning from an 11-month layoff to win a unanimous 10-round decision against former junior featherweight titlist Rico Ramos on March 23.