By Scott Gilfoid: Well, I must say it didn’t look great recently with Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) vacating his IBF and WBA super bantamweight titles rather than face his mandatory Guillermo Rigondeaux. That was seen as a major duck by Frampton in the eyes of a lot of people.
I guess Frampton had his reasons for giving up the belts and not taking on the highly talented Rigondeaux the way that the boxing community wanted him to. Frampton says he wants to show off his ability this month in his title challenge of WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) in their fight on July 30 on Showtime Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The last time Frampton fought in the U.S, he looked dreadful in getting knocked down twice by the 22-year-old Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. in July 2015 in El Paso, Texas. Frampton was knocked down twice in round one of that fight. Frampton can’t just say that it was a flash knockdown or anything like that, because he dropped twice, not just once by Gonzalez Jr.
Frampton was also hurt in the 9th round by a right hand from Gonzalez. The thing of it is, Gonzalez Jr. isn’t even considered a big puncher. He’s just a tall, young guy with decent power, and a high work rate. That fight showed clearly that Frampton doesn’t have the chin to stand in front of his opposition and trade for 12 rounds.
Frampton needs to move around the ring in order not to get his bell rung by younger, stronger fighters. At 29, Frampton is getting along in years. 29 might not sound like an old age for a fighter, but it is in some cases for the tiny fighters in boxing. They tend to have shorter careers at the top compared to the larger fighters in light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions.
The next time I'm on a flight I'll be bringing a shiny new belt back home to Belfast #AndTheNew #2WeightWorldChamp pic.twitter.com/VoFnGItdCy
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) July 4, 2016
“I need to show the American crowd what I’m capable of,” said Frampton to ESPN.com. “Everything was just too laid back before I fought Gonzalez; I took it for granted a bit. I’m better than that; I’m a better fighter than I looked in the first round when Gonzalez put me down twice. It was disastrous but I came back and boxed quite well after that and won on points comfortably.”
Nah, I don’t think you’re better than that, Frampton. Gonzalez exposed your limits as a fighter by dropping you and hurting you. You had 12 rounds to show that you could dominate the young guy, but you couldn’t do it. Gonzo was on you, battering you, getting the better of you, and forcing you to flee to keep from getting nailed. You ended up running around the ring and making it a heck of a boring to watch.
Frampton should have lost his last fight against Scott Quigg last February if Quigg had the sense enough to know that he needed to fight hard in the early rounds and not just in the last six rounds of the contest. Quigg was by far the better fighter from rounds seven through twelve. If Quigg had just gone after Frampton from round one, he was won a lopsided 12 round decision if not by a knockout. Quigg showed clearly that he was the stronger guy and the better fighter. It was a case of the weaker guy winning because of a tactical mistake made by Quigg.
The 5’7 ½” Santa Cruz is every bit as powerful and as big as the 5’8” Quigg. Santa Cruz is going to have a two and a half inch height advantage over Frampton to go along with his youth and power advantage. The fight is taking place in the U.S rather than the UK, so that’s another thing Santa Cruz has going for him. What sets Santa Cruz apart from Quigg is that he’s someone that goes after his opponents right from the get go.
Santa Cruz will not show the kind of respect to Frampton that Quigg did, because that’s not the type of fighter he is. Santa Cruz goes after all of his opponents early in looking to wear them down and stop them in short order. The blueprint in how to beat Frampton was already created by Quigg, so all Santa Cruz has to do is follow it to the letter to wear Frampton out. This is a fight that Frampton is likely going to end up looking very, very bad.
It’s like this: If Frampton runs for 12 rounds, he’s going to get booed out of the Barclays Center. This is New York, and the fans in that city want to see action. They don’t put up with watching a bunch of a running from a fighter, especially when it’s a main event fight like the Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight is. As such, if Frampton runs from Santa Cruz, which he clearly was doing in his last fight against Quigg, then the crowd will boo Frampton out of the arena.
The fight is going to be piped out of the U.S into the UK for Frampton’s fans to see the fight. If they see Frampton running from Santa Cruz and getting booed 24/7, it’s going to look bad. If Frampton chooses to be a warrior by standing in place and trading shots with Santa Cruz in a toe-to-toe battle for 12 rounds, then I see him getting taken apart by the talented Mexican fighter and stopped at some point. Either way, Frampton is really up against it in this fight, and I don’t see anything good coming of it.
I think Frampton should have stayed at 122 and fought Rigondeaux, because at least in fighting him, the chance of losing by a knockout would be decreased and there would be a chance of him beating the Cuban by a decision, albeit a HIGHLY controversial decision. But in fighting Santa Cruz, this is a fight that will likely end with Frampton taking a beat down if he actually tries to fight. If he doesn’t fight, then he’ll run and stink up the joint and get booed out of the ring. Man, it’s going to be so, so bad if Frampton does that. If it was me, I would glue my shoes to the canvas and just fight, because I wouldn’t be seeing scurrying around the ring trying to save my hide from a beating.
“That was me at 70 percent and I really need to be at my best to beat Santa Cruz because he’s the best fighter I’ve come up against,” said Frampton.
How was that performance only 70 percent of Frampton’s game against Gonzalez? Why would Frampton hold back against a guy that dropped him twice in round one? It sounds to me like Frampton doesn’t realize his own limitations as a fighter. Unfortunately for Frampton, we saw his limits front and center in the Gonzalez Jr. fight as well as the Quigg fight. There was no improvement in Frampton’s game in the Quigg fight, and should have lost if Quigg had fought harder early on.