(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) By Scott Gilfoid: Well, whether Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) likes it or not, he’s going to have to face former WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) again in a rematch after beating him by a 12 round majority decision last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
According to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times, Santa Cruz has a rematch clause in the contract for his fight last night against Frampton. Santa Cruz says that he’ll be talking to his manager Al Haymon to have him exercise his rematch clause. The rematch will likely take place in Frampton’s home city of Belfast, in Northern Ireland.
“Just spoke to Leo Santa Cruz alone. He told me he’ll ask Al Haymon for immediate rematch and will benefit from full camp with dad next time,” said Pugmire on his Twitter. “Yes, I’m told, there is definitely a rematch clause in place for Leo Santa Cruz to exercise on Frampton if he chooses. I’d say bring it back here to NY, it’ll only play bigger, but was told, “I could see it filling a soccer stadium,” in Ireland.”
So there it is. A rematch will be taking place between Frampton and Santa Cruz. I’m not sure how Frampton and his manager Barry McGuigan feel about this, because they likely were thinking of facing IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby next in a unification match that would play out big in the UK. Selby is an unknown pretty much in the U.S, but in the UK, he’s well known. I wouldn’t say that Selby is a star in the UK, but a fight between him and Frampton would be a big deal if they stage it in Belfast.
The big question is whether Frampton has to face Santa Cruz straightaway or if he can squeeze in a fight before the rematch. That would be a bad deal for Santa Cruz, because if Frampton faces Selby and loses to him, a rematch between Santa Cruz and Frampton wouldn’t be a big deal like it would be if they faced each other next. Frampton would be tainted and it wouldn’t be worth it for Santa Cruz to fight him again other than to prove that his win over him was a fluke thing.
The scoring for the Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight was very out of sorts last night, as the judges were giving round after round for Frampton despite Santa Cruz appearing to do more than enough to win them. Judges Frank Lombardi and Tom Schreck gave Frampton four out of the first five rounds. Frampton also was given rounds 6, 8 and 9. Those were rounds that I personally had Santa Cruz winning in the second half of the fight. I counted the punches from each fighter, and I had Santa Cruz overwhelmingly landing more shots in rounds six, eight and nine.
“He was using good movement at the beginning. He had goo footwork,” said Santa Cruz at the post-fight press conference.
Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi didn’t agree with the wide scorecards given by Shreck and Lombardi, as he thought the fight should have been scored much closer, perhaps even a draw,
“I felt the right guy won the fight, but I thought it was a lot closer,” said Malignaggit to Fighthype.com. “I thought it was a lot closer, even a draw wouldn’t have been out of the question. But I thought Frampton just edged it. I think [judge Guido] Cavallleri was closest to what it should have been. It was an even fight, maybe seven-five. The crowd definitely played a role and influenced [the judges], of course. For a judge, it’s tough to do his job sometimes when a crowd is so into a fight. But Frampton’s fans, they travel well. I felt that Santa Cruz deserved more of the rounds. I thought it was a closer fight,” said Malignaggi.
The judge that Malignaggi was referring to, Guido Cavalleri, scored it a draw at 114-114.
I totally agree with Malignaggi in part about it being a closer fight. Where I disagree with him is on who won the fight. I felt that Santa Cruz definitely deserved the win. At the very least, I think he deserved a draw, but definitely not a loss. No way did Frampton do enough last night to deserve a victory.