By Scott Gilfoid: IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) and WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) have agreed to fight this summer, and they’re close to having their fight finalized, according to Showtime vice president Stephen Espinoza.
Frampton will be giving up one of his super bantamweight titles and moving up for the fight. Frampton, 29, has two mandatory defenses due at this time at super bantamweight against WBA mandatory Guillermo Rigondeaux and his IBF mandatory Shingo Wake.
Frampton will almost surely give up his WBA title in order to avoid the Rigondeaux fight, which would probably result in a loss for Frampton. Frampton will be keeping one of the titles. The IBF belt is the one to keep if Frampton wants to avoid Rigondeaux and an embarrassing potential loss.
The venue for the Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight is still being worked out at this time. That’s the part that they’re trying to iron out. The fight will likely draw a much bigger crowd if it’s staged in the UK where Frampton is a big star.
A Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight in the U.S. likely wouldn’t do any better than Santa Cruz’s recent fight against Kiko Martinez. The casual boxing fans in America do not have a clue who little 5’5” Frampton is., and the featherweight division isn’t a hugely popular one in America.
They could surely stage the fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and bring a nice sized crowd, but it wouldn’t compare to the crowd that Frampton can draw in the UK. I’m not sure that Santa Cruz will agree to fight Frampton in the UK though. Santa Cruz is managed by Al Haymon, and I cannot see him giving Frampton such a huge advantage by staging the fight over there.
I want to fight the best. Would love to give #boxing fans a fight vs @RealCFrampton this summer. #SantaCruzFrampton pic.twitter.com/BnAg01N7pk
— Leo Santa Cruz (@leosantacruz2) March 12, 2016
Frampton is coming off of a close 12 round split decision win over WBA 122lb champion Scott Quigg last February in Manchester, UK. Frampton won the fight by the scores of 116-112 and 116-112 for Frampton, and 115-113 for Quigg. Frampton didn’t look as powerful in that fight compared to Quigg.
You can make a strong argument that Frampton would have lost the fight if Quigg had started fighting aggressively in the first half of the contest instead of waiting for the second half of the fight to turn up the heat against the smaller, weaker Frampton.
Frampton and his manager Barry McGuigan are cool to the idea of getting inside the ring with Rigondeaux to mix it up. Their excuse for not fighting him is he’s a spoiler, and they gain little from fighting him. Of course, by fighting Rigondeaux, Frampton would get a chance to prove he’s the best fighter in the 122lb division rather than the second best or someone is just popular rather than truly the best.
“He’s amazing on the back foot but he’s negative. What do we gain by fighting him?” McGuigan said via skysports.com.
Frampton kind of reminds me a little of Sau “Canelo” Alvarez in that he’s one of the more popular guys in his division. Canelo is popular too, but not considered to be the best at 160. The fans want Canelo to fight Gennady Golovkin, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll do that. Golovkin isn’t as popular as Canelo. Rigondeaux is the 122lb division’s version of Golovkin, but without his power.
No one is in a hurry to fight Rigondeaux because to fight him means you’re probably going to lose and lose badly. As such, you hear excuses about how Rigondeaux is a spoiler and how he doesn’t bring anything to the table.
By using those excuses to avoid the perceived best fighter in the 122lb division, it makes the sport of boxing seem like an actual sport and more like a business. It makes it like professional wrestling in my view where the most popular guys face each other. If this were the NFL, where the best MUST fight the best, then Frampton would have no choice but to fight Rigondeaux. He couldn’t just back out and say he wants to play another team in another league like the CFL or AFL.
Santa Cruz is an even worse match-up for the smallish Frampton than Rigondeaux. Santa is someone who will push the fight on Frampton for three minutes of every round for 12 rounds. He’s not like Quigg, who only fought hard for six rounds. I can’t see Frampton winning. He’ll get a nice payday, but lose a one-sided 12 round decision or more likely lose by a knockout.
Rigondeaux was unable to face Jazza Dickens due to visa problems. He was supposed to fight him tonight, but he couldn’t get a visa to fight in the UK.
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