Carl Frampton: New York, Las Vegas and Belfast - the fights that made Frampton

Carl Frampton called time on his career with a professional record of 28-3

So, it was not to be.

The missed opportunity to become Ireland's three-weight world champion will hurt Carl Frampton, perhaps it always will.

But the dust will settle. And when it does, a career that twice reached boxing's summit will make for a pleasant picture whenever Frampton chooses to reflect.

Three-weight world champion would have been sensational, but two-weight world champion is, on balance, pretty good too.

• Frampton retires after losing to Herring

There are the belts, and there are the occasions. The nights in Belfast, Manchester, New York and Las Vegas that will be remembered by many for reasons greater than who won the fight.

An empty arena in Dubai will, one suspects, not be the abiding memory of his career.

Amid several highlights, let's take a look back at some of Carl Frampton's most memorable nights.

A Titanic win

In September 2014, 18,000 people piled into the Titanic slipways to watch Frampton in his first world title shot against Spain's Kiko Martinez.

Before the first bell, the party was in full swing. Boxing is in Belfast's DNA. The history stretches way back, before Rinty Monaghan became the city's first world champion in 1948.

Northern Ireland's boxing heritage has been a source of pride across the traditional community divides, and Frampton was the latest hometown favourite.

"Boxing was always a sport that transcended just about everything," explains BBC Radio Ulster boxing commentator Jim Neilly.

"Boxing always had that ability to lift people up. Local success in boxing provided a feel-good factor in Northern Ireland, and for a country that seriously fell apart on a number of occasions during the Troubles, it was sport that lifted everybody.

"Any problems or strife were put aside so people could concentrate on the sport. And if there was a victory, everybody celebrated irrespective of what side they came from."

And celebrate they did. Having defeated Martinez 19 months earlier, Frampton repeated the feat with a stylish points win to claim the IBF super-bantamweight title.

"Frampton came through his first fight well, and in the rematch he boxed wonderfully. At that stage of his career he was really at the top of his form," recalls Neilly.

"Martinez was very dangerous, he had more or less ended Bernard Dunne's career by knocking him out in Dublin in one round so he was a very dangerous opponent.

"But it was a huge night for Carl and for Belfast, for a local boy to win a world title in front of a home crowd who were going ballistic."

Quigg win lays platform for Santa Cruz

Following two successful defences, Frampton turned attentions to Bury's Scott Quigg.

While the fight itself failed to spark into life, the abiding memory of that night is not Frampton's win but the cauldron of noise that engulfed Manchester Arena.

Frampton's travelling fans delivered and, buoyed by a tetchy build-up, so did their man. Another win and another super-bantamweight belt.

That paved the way for arguably the most memorable night of Frampton's 33-fight professional career.

Barclays Centre, New York. 30 July 2016. Frampton's supporters descended upon the concrete jungle as the Belfast man took on Leo Santa Cruz.

The Mexican champion, a spectacular relentless fighter, was heavily fancied by most going into the bout. Not by everyone, though.

"We knew fine well that he could do it, and that he was going to," says Frampton's former stablemate and current light-welterweight world champion Josh Taylor.

"At that stage in time, we weren't really thinking about who the underdog was. Certainly in my mind I knew he could do it, and the timing was right.

"When you're involved in it, you don't think about the outside. You're in a tunnel."

In one of the contests of the year, Frampton upset the odds to claim the WBA featherweight world title with a performance that would see him crowned Ring Magazine fighter of the year.

"It was one of the best boxing experiences I've ever had in my life," said Taylor.

"Me and [former stablemate] Conrad Cummings were sat up the back in the middle of the crowd, and when Carl won it was like being involved in a massive party.

"The noise and atmosphere was unbelievable, the best boxing experience I've had in my life and I'll never forget it."

The rematch

Frampton and Santa Cruz were a match made in heaven, and calls for a rematch were unanimous.

Six months later, at the iconic MGM Grand, the pair put on another show.

With Frampton no longer considered the rank outsider most onlookers expected something similar to what they had seen in New York.

"The general feeling that seemed to be echoed around the media centre in Las Vegas was that the fight couldn't be an awful lot different to the first," says BBC Radio 5 Live's boxing commentator Mike Costello.

"And yet it was in the end. Leo Santa Cruz boxed in a different way and that was really striking because all through the week [former trainer] Shane McGuigan and Frampton had spoken about Santa Cruz pretty much being certain to do what he did first time around, which was punching in clusters and pretty much being on the front foot.

"I think if they look back on it now they will recognise that as a mistake. They weren't ready for Leo Santa Cruz to change up his tactics."

Santa Cruz boxed more, used his jab and punched less than he did in the first fight. It worked as, in another epic contest, the Mexican did enough to get his hand raised and claim back his world title.

Frampton and Santa Cruz put on another memorable 12-round show in Las Vegas

It was a first defeat for Frampton, but one that seemingly set the stage for a trilogy fight.

It remains arguably the greatest frustration of Frampton's career that we never saw that third contest.

"If we look back in history, actually the number of great trilogies is very few," says Costello.

"You can list Ali and Frasier, going all the way back to the black and white TV days of Rocky Graziano and Tony Zale. There have been others, and they add to the lustre of a boxer's career especially when they're as closely contested as they are.

"There was a cushion to soften the blow [for Frampton] in that he was beaten by a genuinely great fighter, but had there been a chance for him to go for a third fight - I think that would have been for him something that would have been the highlight of his career."

"When I look back they're two of the real highlights of my career as a commentator."

Although he never recaptured a world title, the final years of Frampton's career still produced some memorable nights.

He fulfilled his dream of filling out Windsor Park to defeat Luke Jackson, before once again bringing the noise in an electric Christmas world title fight with Josh Warrington in Manchester.

Frampton did not get his fairytale ending, he will not be Ireland's first three-weight world champion.

On reflection though, he might conclude that two world titles and sell-out shows at Windsor Park, the Titanic Quarter, New York and Las Vegas was not a bad return from his boxing career.