By Scott Gilfoid: Many boxing fans felt that Carl Frampton’s win over WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) was a bogus victory last July, and they think the fight should have been scored either a draw or a win for Santa Cruz.
Frampton says he wants to prove that his win wasn’t a fluke by him going out and beating Santa Cruz a second time in their rematch in 10 days from now on January 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Frampton has been working on his flaws in his game, and he says he’s improved in this training camp. However, at 29, it’s not likely that Frampton has improved his biggest flaw in his game with inside fighting. Frampton just is not that good of an inside fighter compared to Santa Cruz. I don’t think it’s possible for a fighter like Frampton to fix his inside game in one training camp.
Frampton’s other major flaw in his game is his lack of stamina. He gets tired in the second half of his fights when he’s forced to fight hard. That’s another area that I think is beyond Frampton’s control in being able to fix it in time for the Santa Cruz rematch or fix it at all. I think Frampton was trained as best as he could in his last two fights against Santa Cruz and Scott Quigg, and in both cases, he gassed out. I don’t think Frampton is ever going to fix his stamina problem. It is what it is.
“I’m hungry to prove that this wasn’t a fluke,” said Frampton to skysports.com. “I see some people talking on the internet that I got lucky last time or that Leo would have won with his father in camp the whole time.”
Last July, Frampton beat Santa Cruz by the scores of 114-114, 116-112, and 117-111. Gilfoid scored the Frampton-Santa Cruz fight a draw. Frampton didn’t do enough in the last seven rounds of the fight to win. I think Frampton was done after round 5. Santa Cruz came on stop with inside game and his nonstop pressure in the second half. Frampton was TRYING hard to keep the action on the outside like it had been in the first five rounds, but Santa Cruz was on top of him no matter where he ran to.
Frampton’s short legs couldn’t move him fast enough and far enough to keep the longer-legged Santa Cruz from catching up to him immediately after a few strides. At some point, it was painfully obvious that Frampton was going to need to fight Santa Cruz at close quarters whether he wanted to or not. It was a lost cause for Frampton to try and run, because he didn’t have the leg speed to keep away from Santa Cruz.
Frampton is saying he fought Santa Cruz’s fight last time in the last six rounds, and that he’s going to avoid doing that this time. Frampton hasn’t seemed to come to terms with the fact that he doesn’t have the right legs to keep away from a pressure fighter like Santa Cruz. There are fighters in the featherweight division that could elude Santa Cruz for 12 rounds if they wanted to, but Frampton isn’t one of them. But even if Frampton does run from Santa Cruz for the entire fight, he’s not going to win fighting like that. The fight is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada. You’ve got to fight to win in that city. You can’t win by running around the ring. Santa Cruz is going to have a lot of his boxing fans in attendance on January 28. I Frampton chooses to run from Santa Cruz, the fans are going to boo Frampton out of the ring. I don’t think the judges are going to give Frampton the benefit of the doubt this time around, especially if he’s seen trying to elude Santa Cruz in every round.
“I got drawn in to Leo’s type of fight last time, which made it very exciting. Because of our styles, it’s always going to be a good fight,” said Frampton.
I like how Frampton makes it seem as if he voluntarily got forced to fight Santa Cruz on the inside in the last half of their previous fight. Believe me; Frampton DID not have a choice in the matter. He was trying his best to get to the outside so that he could continue with his pot shot type fighting like he’d done in the first five rounds.
The problem that Frampton had was Santa Cruz wouldn’t let him. He was too good. He just stayed close to Frampton no matter how hard he attempted to get away from him. The reality is that when a fighter wants to get away from another one, you’re usually not going to succeed unless your opponent has slow feet and no clue in how to cut off the ring. Santa Cruz has feet, and he’s very good at cutting off the ring on his opponents. As such, Frampton is going to need to fight Santa Cruz on the inside whether he wants to or not. That’s just the way it is. The sooner Frampton realizes that the better. I just hope he doesn’t realize it too late. It would be better for Frampton to go into the rematch with Santa Cruz knowing that he’s not going to be able to fight on the outside like he did last time. The rematch is going to be fought on the inside for 12 rounds. If Frampton can hang, then he’ll win the fight. If not, then he’ll lose.
Frampton wants to move on and face a big money unification fight against IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby in his next after the Santa Cruz rematch. I think that fight is going to happen, but I don’t know about Frampton still having his WBA title in his possession when he takes that fight.
“If it’s two wins to nil for me, I’d rather move on and fight someone like Lee Selby. I just want to be involved in big fights,” said Frampton.