By Scott Gilfoid: The rematch between unbeaten WBA Super World featherweight champion Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) and former WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) is officially set for January 28, in 2017 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Santa Cruz, 28, had a rematch clause in his contract from his previous fight against Frampton last July, which the Irish fighter won by a HIGHLY controversial 12 round majority decision by the scores of 114-114, 116-112, and 117-11 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Gilfoid saw the Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight, and he had Santa Cruz winning by the score of 116-112.
It seemed like a pretty clear win to me for Santa Cruz. However, the crowd was completely on Frampton’s side, which isn’t surprising because the fight took place in New York where there are a lot of Frampton fans.
You might as well had had the fight in Frampton’s hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland, because the fans were totally on his side in that fight with all their screaming from the moment the fight first started.
“Done deal! The rematch vs. Leo Santa Cruz2 is on!!! More news to come soon #And Still,” said Frampton on his Twitter social media site.
This is going to give Santa Cruz a second chance to prove that he’s the better fighter than Frampton. The news that Santa Cruz will be fighting Frampton in Las Vegas, Nevada has got to be seen as a real positive one for his fans, because this is going to make it a different atmosphere than their match last July in which the boxing fans were firmly on Frampton’s side. There’s a good chance that the fans will be evenly split down the middleweight for this fight.
It’s far from being an ideal situation for Santa Cruz, because he lives in Southern California. If the fight were to take place over there, then Frampton would have real problems in terms of the crowd. Having the match in Las Vegas makes it more of a neutral venue. This way the better man will win the fight rather than the fighter with the most crowd support, which you can argue was Frampton in their previous fight.
I wouldn’t gloat so much if I were Frampton, because many boxing fans still think he was beaten last time around, and he’s going to have a really hard time proving himself as the better fighter than Santa Cruz in the rematch. Santa Cruz now knows how to beat the 29-year-old Frampton by applying relentless pressure. If you look at the last six rounds of their previous fight, Santa Cruz was constantly coming forward, nailing Frampton with shots, and forcing him to fight harder than his body would let him.
I had Santa Cruz winning the last six rounds of the contest along with two of the first six rounds. I thought the scoring was DREADFUL to the extreme. I don’t know which fight the three judges were watching, but they sure as heck weren’t watching the Santa Cruz-Frampton fight that I was. Never the less, Santa Cruz now has the blueprint tucked away in how to beat Frampton, and I expect him to use that fight plan to perfect on January 28 to hand Frampton his first loss of his career.
The keys to victory for Santa Cruz are as follows:
– Pressure Frampton constantly for three minutes of every round.
– Don’t let Frampton fight on the outside.
– Use uppercuts and body shots in close.
– Don’t let Frampton clinch on the inside. Work through the clinches. Alert the referee to do his job to warn Frampton about his holding.
Frampton was hoping to get a unification match against IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby, but the rematch clause Santa Cruz had in the contract got in the way of that fight from taking place. Frampton can still fight Selby (23-1, 8 KOs) in the future, but only AFTER he battles Santa Cruz a second time. Besides, Selby has his own problems that he needs to take care of first in the form of the talent Jonathan Victor Barros in December. That’s not going to be an easy fight for Selby, because #3 IF Barros is going to be a very tough fight for him. Selby may lose that fight.
Frampton didn’t seem to realize that his win over Santa Cruz was a controversial one, as he said this via skysports.com shortly after the fight:
“This is a dream come true for me. As a young boy I dreamed of winning a world title and now I’m a two-weight world champion. I’d love to give Leo a rematch because he gave me my chance. I’d love to have it in Belfast and show the public how great a warrior he is.”
Frampton’s questionable win over Santa Cruz made him a two division world champion, as he previously held the IBF/WBA super bantamweight titles. He moved up in weight to featherweight following his narrow 12 round split decision over World Boxing Association World super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg last February at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. That was a fight that could have scored a draw, because Quigg put a tremendous amount of pressure on Frampton in the last six rounds of the fight and appeared to have done enough to get the win.
The scoring for that fight was kind of crazy because the judges had to have given Frampton rounds in the second half of the fight for him to get the decision, and I couldn’t see any rounds that I could give to him in the last half. The judges gave Frampton the win by the scores 116-112, 116-112 for Frampton and 115-113 for Quigg. If Frampton had held onto his WBA title after the Quigg fight, he would have had to face #1 Guillermo Rigondeaux, who is considered to be the top fighter in the division. I think Santa Cruz would have been royally whipped by Rigondeaux. It’s good thing that Frampton vacated his title, because Rigondeaux is out of this world good in terms of his boxing skills, and overall talent.