The two-weight world champion, who describes himself as protestant, grew up in Tiger's Bay a staunch protestant area but lived very close to the bordering neighbourhood New Lodge which is staunch Catholic.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, he said: ""It wasn't a bad childhood, I've seen a bit of trouble, rioting and stuff. There were friends of mine who would have joined the paramilitaries. That is what happened being from that area."
Frampton says he never experienced any personal difficulties because boxing was immune to local tensions.
"As an amateur I fought in the Felons Club on Andersonstown Road which we saw as an IRA club," he said. "Until I got a bit older, most of the Catholic guys wouldn't have known I was a Protestant, it didn't come into it.
"In the ring there is always a respect, isn't there? It's a strange game, boxing, you go in there trying to hurt the other guy, trying to knock him out, that is how brutal it is but there's always a mutual respect.
Frampton was speaking ahead of his world title defence later this month.
He fights Mexican Santa Cruz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on January 28.