Carl Frampton is being lined up for a world title shot after hammering out the biggest win of his professional career in his hometown of Belfast on Saturday.

Frampton, nicknamed “The Jackal”, dropped and stopped Bernard Dunne’s conqueror Kiko Martinez to claim the European super-bantamweight title at a sold out Odyssey Arena.

Martinez, who stopped Dunne in the first round for the same title in Dublin in 2007, went down under a right-left-combo from Frampton in the ninth round.

The Spaniard, who made a throat-slitting gesture at Friday’s weigh-in, was still wobbling after rising and was taken into protective custody by Finnish referee Anssi Perajoki 14 seconds from the bell. Frampton, who is signed with Barry McGuigan, was on top at that stage and en route to dethroning the defending champion.

He said: “He has never even been hurt before and he has never been on his backside. He has never even been wobbled and he has been in with some good opposition and I took him out.”