The 30-year-old, once a world champion at featherweight and super-bantamweight, may even be fighting in his home city for the final time.
Saturday's fight at the SSE Arena no longer serves as an eliminator for the WBC featherweight title for him, after he came in one pound overweight at 9st 1lb. It also comes after the six-month lay-off which followed his first professional defeat to another Mexican, Leo Santa Cruz, in Las Vegas.
However, he is just 1/25 with Sky Bet to win the contest.
Frampton has made no secret of his desire to face Santa Cruz for a third time, or to challenge Wales' IBF champion Lee Selby, so it is even more significant that his trainer Shane McGuigan has said the "finish line" is in sight despite only 24 professional fights.
McGuigan, speaking to the Irish media ahead of the Gutierrez bout, said: "We feel Saturday night is the next chapter in Carl's career and one I'm excited about, because we can see the finish line now.
"It's like running a marathon and you can see that 20-mile mark and you've got around six miles to go. The legs are a bit heavy but we're going to finish strong with four or five big wins.
"Of course, you don't know how Carl is going to react after his first defeat, it's one thing doing it in the gym and another doing it in the ring.
"I would be concerned if we don't see a good performance on Saturday night because there's no point being in this business to just go through the motions."
McGuigan, 28, recently stopped training the 36-year-old David Haye amid suggestions he had encouraged the heavyweight to retire, but he has worked with Frampton for significantly longer.
"If I don't win this next fight, what do I do?" Frampton added.
"So I'm determined to win this fight and then we'll think about the future after that."
Gutierrez, who has lost one and drawn one of his 37 fights, said: "I've been waiting for this (chance) for many years. I'm not going to let it pass."
Despite his confident mood, Gutierrez is a 10/1 outsider to win the fight.
Related links
Sky Bet's latest big-fight odds
Simon Crawford's in-depth betting preview
