Getty Image / David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Carl Frampton was set to fight Emmanuel Dominguez in Philadelphia this weekend in his first bout since December but he’s been forced to back out at the last minute due to a freak accident at a hotel in Philly that has left him with a broken hand.
When I first saw the news that he was forced to withdraw because of a ‘freak accident at a hotel’ I assumed it was something in the bedroom or an attack from another entourage, but this is truly a strange one. The make the long story short: he’s broke his hand and it wasn’t from punching anyone.
The 32-year-old boxer from Northern Ireland shared news of what happened on social media. He’s broken his fifth metacarpal after an ornamental statuette of some sort at the hotel was knocked over and landed on his hand, breaking the bone in his hand.
Here’s his statement on Twitter along with a video of the ornament that fractured his metacarpal:
Here’s that clip which kind of recreates the bizarre accident that led to his broken hand:
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) August 5, 2019
What’s crazy about the metacarpal bones is how strong they are when they’re being used as the body intends for them to be used. When you go through life using your hands properly these bones are strong as hell, but when a tiny bobble from a hotel falls at a weird angle they will snap pretty easily, even if you’re a boxer who presumably has stronger hands than the average person.
Here’s his full statement in text:
“Today a freak accident occurred,” he said. “A large ornament, in the hotel lobby, was knocked over accidentally and hit me on the left hand, fracturing the fifth metacarpal.
“I’m extremely disappointed for the travelling support, and for myself and for my team.
“I’ve put everything into this camp. I’ve been away from my amazing wife and kids for most of it and it all seems like a waste.
“Although it was out of my control, I’d like to apologise to Emmanuel, MTK Global, Top Rank, my team, my travelling support and to my wife and kids for being away so long.”
According to the BBC, Frampton says he spent somewhere around £30K ($36K USD) on this training camp leading up to the fight against 25-year-old Emmanuel Dominguez of Mexico.
Frampton says it will take anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks for this injury to heal but you never know with healing bones if they’ll come back as strong as they were before of if that’s an injury he’ll be prone to in the future. It’s unclear if or when this fight will be rescheduled.
For more on this story, you can click here to visit the BBC.