Jamel Herring retained the title via sixth-round knockout and Carl Frampton in the ring following the defeat announced his retirement to "leave town".
Entering the fight, Herring had the size advantage from the tale of the tape, but once the bell rang the size difference was glaring and it made sense.
Herring had started his career as a lightweight and Frampton had begun his at junior featherweight, so the boxer, Herring, was physically the larger and stronger man.
Herring started strong, establishing himself as willing to stand his ground, and Frampton, who was unable to move to the inside and do the work needed for him to thrive for the first two rounds.
However, Frampton began to win some exchanges in round three, which was a close round that could have been given to either fighter and Frampton clearly won the fourth round along with cutting Herring over his left eye with a cut bad enough that Herring could have concerns about the fight being stopped as the fight continued.
With the tide starting to roll towards Frampton in the fifth round, Frampton began to pick up the pace even more but was dropped by a straight left from Herring that he was never able to truly recover from.
Frampton wouldn't survive a second time, as Herring landed a crushing uppercut that sent Frampton down early in the sixth round.
Frampton rose but was met by a volley of punches from Herring that sent a groggy Frampton into the ropes and when Herring landed another strong left that hurt Frampton, the corner leaped to the ropes to signal surrender for their man.
Frampton would announce his retirement in the ring with an emotional statement and I think he means it.
Frampton will be remembered for splitting his series with Leo Santa Cruz and his win over Scott Quigg in one of the bigger fights of the last decade in the U.K.
As for Herring, he will have two choices, he could face Shakur Stevenson in another fight that he will be the underdog in a WBO mandatory defense, but Herring could ask for a waiver in order to unify his title with that of WBC champion Oscar Valdez.
The other option could be for Herring to vacate the WBO title, which would likely be filled by Stevenson's June fight against unknown Jeremiah Nakathila, fight Valdez, and the winner would then unify against Stevenson.
I'd place Herring as a solid underdog against either Valdez or Stevenson, especially with his recent problems with cuts, but I wouldn't rule him out completely as he seems to fight his best when the least is expected of him.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica scored a point for the Herring victory to cut my lead back to two points at 38-36.
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