WITH his bid to create a piece of sporting history just weeks away, Carl Frampton reports his injured hand has fully recovered and he is back sparring ahead of his WBO super-featherweight showdown with Jamel Herring.
The fight was due to take place on February 27 in London but is now heading to Dubai on April 3 following the delay.
Frampton's injury came about in a sparring session and resulted in him unable to do any heavy-duty training for a few weeks having sustained ligament damage.
The North Belfast man admits he didn't expect his request for a delay would be granted but having got the nod he says it has allowed him to return to sparring and return to full fitness ahead of his date with destiny.
"I would have fought despite the hand anyway," he insisted.
"It was just an injury that stopped me from sparing for a while. Thankfully, it was able to be postponed although I wasn't expecting it to be postponed if I'm being honest, so happy days."
The surroundings at Caesar's Palace in Dubai will be a far cry from those at London's Copper Box Arena and 'The Jackal' is hoping this will mean that some fans can be in attendance.
With travel restrictions in place and those returning from the UAE required to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks on their return, that means that there will be no travelling support, but could allow fans based out in Dubai the chance to attend.
It is not ideal, but having experienced fighting in an empty room against Darren Traynor in August, any kind of an atmosphere will be a much more appealing prospect.
"There's the chance of a bit of a crowd, but I'm still not 100 per cent sure what the situation is about the attendance," he added.
"I think they were hopeful for a big crowd but that might have changed, although it could change again before the fight takes place.
"That would be a big positive to have any amount of people there so it's not a completely dead atmosphere.
"I think this fight deserves to have a crowd. With what's going on around the world it may to be possible but I think we're giving ourselves every opportunity to get some kind of crowd in."
There had been a little bit of back-and-forth on social media between Frampton and Herring once the initial February date was announced, but certainly nothing to suggest bad blood between the pair.
'The Jackal' feels it's almost amusing to see Herring react to online posts but says he is not intending to fuel the fire too much in the build-up.
"I'm not trying to get him at all, but he just seems to react to everything online," he noted.
"I just said he needs to maybe chill out a bit and not have to have an opinion on everything. Every time somebody says I'm going to win the fight he gets really annoyed and upset about it.
"I think if I wanted to wind him up I could, but I actually quite like him so I don't think I need to."
