By Terence Dooley

Mike Criscio, the manager of California's Chris Avalos, has put his money where his mouth is by placing a £10,000 bet on his fighter ahead of tomorrow night’s IBF Super bantamweight title fight.  Avalos, 25-2 (19), has vowed to tear the title away from Carl Frampton, 19-0 (13), in front of the Irishman’s Belfast support, and his manager has backed him to the hilt with the big money bet.

“I almost got odds of 9-1 but then they dropped” explained Criscio when speaking to David Kelly from the Belfast Telegraph.  “I put £10,000 on Chris to win because I know he's going to win the fight and I may even put a thousand on some of the rounds because I can see him stopping Frampton.

“It'll be a slugfest, he'll throw over 100 punches a round—has Carl ever seen that before?  No.  And Chris is going to bring that and it'll be full on from the start, Carl is going to be out of his comfort zone.  Carl's never been in the ring with someone as tough as him.  Frampton has fought good competition but Chris has fought great competition.  He had nothing growing up, he's going to be more hungry than Frampton.  A lot of eyes are going to be opened on Saturday night and he'll make a lot of new fans.”

Frampton believes he will come through the maiden defence of his title unscathed to set up potential unification fights with Scott Quigg (WBA World), Leo Santa Cruz or Guillermo Rigondeaux, the division’s true champion, but, should he lose the belt, Team Avalos would be ready to offer him a rematch under the right conditions and for the right money.

“To win the title will be huge for him, it's what he has been fighting for his whole life,” added Criscio.  “Santa Cruz would be a good fight but we would come back and fight Frampton again.  I've no problem coming back, I believe in giving the guy who gave you a chance another fight, but the money has to make sense.”

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