Come Saturday night, it’ll be four years, two months and six days.

Or exactly 218 weeks, if you’re the more precise type.

Either way, it somehow seems a lot longer when it comes to Carl Frampton.

Though I challenge anyone to find something I’ve written on him that’s anything less than straight down the middle, I’ll concede to being a long-term fan of the “Jackal” from Belfast.

I loved him at 122 pounds, where aggression and skill outweighed a pint-sized frame, and I wholly admired his work at 126 – where a midsummer upset of a then-unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz at Barclays Center remains among my must-watch highlights almost five years later.

And when the “El Terremoto” rematch arrived the following January in Las Vegas, I was sure he’d make it two in a row and take a quantum leap toward superstardom – or at the very least toward becoming a darling on the lighter-weight hardcore set like Santa Cruz himself had been since his days at 118.

Didn’t happen.

In the virtuoso July performance, Frampton – even as the older, shorter and supposedly less powerful man – used footwork, hand speed and all-around ring acumen to vanquish a foe who couldn’t find the target often enough to deliver any significant sustained punishment.

It was clinical in spots. It was violent in others. It was beautiful throughout.

By wintertime, however, Santa Cruz had willed himself into a strategic makeover.

Too often open for flashy and occasionally damaging replies while lurching forward to press the initial fight, he forced himself to stay patient while fighting off his back foot, establishing the jab from the outset and never letting Frampton establish a consistent path to offense.

Frampton conceded the turned tables in the aftermath, labeling Santa Cruz as "clever" and suggesting that "the brawler" had outboxed "the boxer." Showtime’s Steve Farhood went one better on the praise meter, claiming the winner had fought "perhaps as brilliantly" as he ever had.

A third fight seemed logical. 

But boxing being boxing, it never happened.

Instead he played three dates on the Belfast circuit, beating an anonymous Horacio Garcia, a faded Nonito Donaire and an unproven Luke Jackson on the way to a surprising – at least to me – unanimous decision loss to Josh Warrington for the IBF belt he’d relinquished to get the initial Santa Cruz bout.

Apparently out of both steam and options at 126, Frampton fought at 128 and 134 1/2 in single appearances in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and heads into the lion’s den once more this weekend when he meets the WBO’s 130-pound king, Jamel Herring, at Caesars Palace in Dubai.

Like Santa Cruz, Herring is taller and longer than Frampton. And unlike Frampton, he’s more natural to the division – having campaigned at 129 1/2 or heavier in each of 24 fights since turning pro in 2012.

In fact, he’s unbeaten as an official junior lightweight, losing just a handful of rounds across five fights since debuting at a spot-on 130 with a shutout of John Vincent Moralde in 2018. He was a champion two fights later and has racked up a pair of defenses while climbing to fifth in the Ring Magazine rankings.

Frampton, though generously placed third by the WBO, is not ranked by The Ring.

Still, thanks to street cred, name recognition and good karma, he’s arrived to fight week as a favorite – albeit a narrow one – according to betting lines at Bovada, BetOnline, Intertops and others.

A $130 wager on him at BetOnline would yield a $100 profit.

“I’m surprised by that, if I’m being honest,” he told The Ak & Barak Show. 

“Obviously, just the size of Jamel, he’s the champion and everything else. And I thought the bookies probably would’ve had him a favorite. But I don’t really pay attention to what the bookies have. I know that because someone’s told me that I was the slight favorite. But I would be going into this fight feeling that I’m probably the underdog. And that’s the way I’ve been training.”

Maybe so.

But while Frampton’s surely fought better foes across the board, he’s still awfully small for 130, was never a banger anyway and is in Saturday with a guy who seems to have improved since getting a belt.

So as much as I’d love to see him as a triple-crown champ, it seems less than 50/50 to me.

Though, journalistic neutrality aside, I’m not ashamed to say I hope I’m wrong.

* * * * * * * * * *

This week’s title-fight schedule:

IBF/WBA junior featherweight/super bantamweight titles -- Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Murodjon Akhmadaliev (champion/No. 1 Ring) vs. Ryosuke Iwasa (Interim WBA/No. 4 Ring)

Akhmadaliev (8-0, 6 KO): First title defense; Won titles in first fight scheduled past eight rounds

Iwasa (27-3, 17 KO): Fourth title fight (2-1); Held IBF title at 122 pounds (2017-18, one defense)

Fitzbitz says: It shouldn’t make sense that a guy in his ninth pro fight should be accomplished to be the pick over a former champ with 30 fights, but here it is. He’s that good. Akhmadaliev by decision (70/30)

WBO junior lightweight title -- Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Jamel Herring (champion/No. 5 Ring) vs. Carl Frampton (No. 3 WBO/Unranked Ring)

Herring (22-2, 10 KO): Third title defense; Won six straight fights since 2017 (6-0, 1 KO)

Frampton (28-2, 16 KO): Eighth title fight (5-2); Held titles at 122 and 126 (2014-17, three defenses)

Fitzbitz says: I’m a Frampton fan. Loved him at 122 and respected what he did at 126. But to beat a guy like Herring, who’s gotten better as champ, seems too big an ask at 130. Herring by decision (70/30)

Last week's picks: None

2021 picks record: 8-2 (80.0 percent)

Overall picks record: 1,164-377 (75.5 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.