McIlroy said it was the “toughest” day of his 17-year professional career and some experts have suggested the manner of his loss could doom him, but Frampton believes he will rise from the canvas.
The Tigers Bay native, who has been focusing his energy on the new boxing night at Woodvale Festival, stayed up all night last Sunday and admitted it was “tough to watch” to see the Hollywood golfer lose when he was within a hair of victory, missing two short putts to finish second.
McIlroy said it was the “toughest” day of his 17-year professional career and some experts have suggested the manner of his loss could doom him, but Frampton believes he will rise from the canvas.
“As a sports fan and as someone who supports Rory, it's tough to watch, but it would be even tougher for Rory to watch him make 100 putts on another day and hole every one,” said Frampton, who describes himself as a “happy grinder” when it comes to golf.
“He'll probably be depressed, but it's nothing serious. He'll bounce back and move on.”
“You just need to have the right people around you – a good family, a supportive family who can help you, and friends who can help you get through it.
“You just look at it. Rory McIlroy is one of the best golfers in the world and he knows it. He didn't play badly in the tournament. He came in second but he just had a bad couple of holes at the end and that was the difference between winning and losing.”
Frampton hopes that the new outdoor boxing event, to be held at Woodvale Festival on July 7, will be a success and grow into something more like Fail an Fobail in west Belfast in future, with bigger bouts featuring top fighters such as Michael Conlon at Falls Park.
“I've never been to Woodvale Festival before, but looking at the success of the festival and what's going on there, I know it's big,” Karl said.
“Fail has been very successful and with the right people involved in this, the right actions taken and a bit of a push from council and everyone else, I see no reason why this can’t be just as hugely successful.
“I've been to a few boxing events at Fail and it's always been a fun evening. This one will be different as it's amateur boxing rather than a professional fight at Fail, but there will be a good turnout and as I said, it will be great for the kids.
“There will be an outdoor boxing event in Woodvale on July 7th and a Scottish club, Rob Roy Boxing Club, will come over with selected fighters from the area to take on the kids here.
Rory McIlroy. Photo: Sean M. Hafey/Getty Images
“There’s Cairn Lodge based in the Shankill, my club in the Midlands in Tigers Bay, a couple of clubs on the other side of the fence so to speak like Immaculata and Clonard and we’ve also got Tullycarnet so it’s really a community-to-community event.
“It's outdoors, so it's a real chance for the kids to showcase their talents and do things they wouldn't normally do. It might not sound like a big deal, but it's just getting away from the typical environment of a social club and competing outdoors as amateurs.”
“Obviously doing anything outdoors in this country is a bit risky, but as long as you cover the ring and keep the fighters from getting wet it should be fine.
“It's an all-day day of boxing so there's lots of fights and it should be a great day for everyone.
“There are so many fantastic people in working class areas across Belfast who often don't get the recognition they deserve, but there's a lot of good things going on in these areas, supported by good people.”
“As I said, we hope the festival will be a success and become a big annual event.”
Although he retired from boxing three years ago, Karl is still a young 37-year-old and now works as a boxing commentator for TNT Sports, though he jokes: “I'm like a taxi driver for the kids these days.”
Carl Frampton met up with friends in Woodvale Park at the top of the Shankill Road, where Carl was supporting Woodvale Festival's Ramble in the Park.
Last week, Karl was seen promoting his beloved football team, the Crusaders' new kit for next season, alongside former Crew fearsome midfielder Kirk Hunter.
We asked him who would win between him and Kirk if they fought.
“It's always big Kirk,” Carl said, before revealing, “In fact, while I'm doing this, Kirk is over there in the park pushing my little girl on the swing.”
Definitely a safe place to leave your kids.
Frampton is a two-weight world champion and, despite hailing from the staunchly loyal Tigers Bay area, the whole country rallied behind him.
He's not shy about speaking out, most recently condemning the burning of Irish flags and effigies in bonfires ahead of Independence Day on July 12.
Mr Frampton, who enjoyed lighting bonfires as a young man growing up in north Belfast, said last week: “There are easy ways to look good around a bonfire too. For the loyalist and unionist community, burning effigies should stop.”
“If you do that, you'll get bad press right away.
“Burning the flag on a bonfire is the same as burning the flag of another country and I think this too should not happen.”
Woodvale Festival chairman Alfie McCrory said he too had enjoyed Fail an Fobhaile and would like to bring something similar to the Greater Shankill area.
“We've been running this for about 10 years and it's just getting bigger and bigger,” Alfie says.
“Kids on the Shankill have had to leave the Shankill to see live music at events like Belsonic and Boucher Road so we wanted to give them something here.
“We're trying to be more inclusive and that's where the idea of boxing came from. This is the first year we're having boxing at the festival.”
“The festival is for the whole community so we try to include something different every year – some people like pop music, some people like trance music and there's a strong tradition of boxing in the Greater Shankill area.”
“There are a lot of boxing clubs in the area with kids who box and we’ve been to see Fail fight and they put on some great fights and it would be great to have some great fights in the middle of Woodvale Park.
“We are just taking our first steps. Fail started on a small scale and I believe it is only after 20 years that we have been able to achieve the position we have today.
“We haven't been doing it that long but we feel we're doing the right thing by giving the community what they want and you can see that in the attendance numbers, but boxing is something different.”
“The last boxing match at Woodvale Park was 80 years ago in the 1940s. I actually only found out about it recently. When I was doing a bit of research I thought we were unique and could host the first ever match, but when I Googled it I discovered the first match was in 1940,” he said.
“Apparently they had a rain-free night so hopefully the weather will be the same. But that was many years ago and none of the people who fought that night will be here today, but it will be great to carry on what our ancestors did in the '40s.”
A sculpture of a boxer celebrating the area's proud boxing tradition was unveiled in the park in 2016.
“They call it the Madness Month, but there are people from all communities fighting this bill, not just Catholics and Protestants.
“I have worked as a community worker for 40 years and I don't believe this nonsense. So when you ask me where the fighters are coming from, they come from all communities.”
