By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KO’s) is interested in traveling to Belfast to defend his title against his No.1 WBC mandatory challenger Carl Frampton over there in his home city this July for the right money. Santa Cruz, 25, doesn’t see the 5’6” Frampton as a threat to him, so he’s willing to go over there and knock him out in front of his own Irish fans in July.
In other words, Santa Cruz isn’t worried about being robbed by the judges, as he intends on leaving them with nothing to do but to watch the spectacle.
“I will fight Frampton in Belfast,” Santa Cruz said to the Belfast Telegraph. “He is my number one choice and I want to defend my title in July. I will get the biggest purse of my career.”
Frampton’s management is going to need to come up with the money to lure Santa Cruz over to the UK, because he’s not going to leave the USA to fight for nothing. They’re going to have to come up with some serious green to get Santa Cruz to give up his home country advantage, because a Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight would be a nice little undercard fight on one of Showtime’s cards in the U.S. I could see it as the third fight on Floyd Mayweather or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez pay-per-view card.
“If Santa Cruz is genuine about coming to Belfast, and I have no reason to doubt him, then I will make him an offer he can’t refuse to come fight Carl in Belfast,” said Frampton’s manager Barry McGuigan. “I would clearly love the fight to be in Belfast and I am pleased to hear that Santa Cruz is willing to come.”
McGuigan sure does seem eager to get Santa Cruz over to Belfast, doesn’t he? What’s the problem with him traveling to the U.S to fight Santa Cruz over there? Is he worried about Frampton not being able to perform away from Belfast? I mean, if Frampton is any good, he should be able to beat guys out of his own home country, so why does he need to fight over there all the time?
Frampton’s going to have to come out of the UK sooner or later to fight someone. But then again, WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, who is clearly the best fighter in the 122lb division by far, is also winning to travel to the UK to whip Frampton in Belfast. However, there’s not been any interest from Frampton’s management as of yet to take on that talent.
Frampton’s management may have enough money to continually drag the best fighters in the division over to the UK to fight him there rather than him having to fight in some other country where the crowd will be hostile towards him.
Santa Cruz is one of those types of talents who can win anywhere, as he brings his own judges with him in the form of his two fists. He does not care too much about the judges because there’s no way they can botch up his fights because he beats his opponents badly.
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