Jamel Herring vs. Carl Frampton: Fight prediction, card, odds, start time, stream, how to watch, preview

Herring is a slight underdog to retain his WBO junior lightweight title against Frampton in Dubai

After more than a year of attempts to finally put Jamel Herring in the ring with Carl Frampton, the two will finally meet on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, ESPN+). Herring will bring his WBO junior lightweight championship to the ring, with Frampton looking to capture a world championship for the first time since losing the IBF featherweight crown. COVID-19 has played a factor in the many delays in making the fight happen, both in the global shutdown delaying an international fight between an American (Herring) and Irishman (Frampton), but also because Herring struggled with the virus. Herring's last fight was a disqualification win over Jonathan Oquendo that was twice delayed due to positive tests from Herring. The fight was ugly and didn't answer many questions about any potential long term effects of the virus for Herring. Combat sports has seen fighters bounce back and look like their old selves after bouts with COVID and others who have not seemed the same -- Alexander Povetkin this past weekend is a solid example of the latter. Prior to the pandemic, Frampton was forced out of a planned February 2020 date due to a hand injury. Meeting at 130 pounds adds some interesting wrinkles with Frampton being undersized for the weight and Herring struggling more and more to be able to make the cut. Frampton will enter with significant disadvantages in size, not only in weight, but giving up nearly half a foot in height to Herring when they step in the ring at Caesar's Palace in Dubai. Reach could be an even bigger issue for Frampton, who will be working with a seven-inch disadvantage in that area.