(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) By Dan Ambrose: Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) threw over 1000 punches last Saturday night in losing his WBA featherweight title to challenger Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The final punch stats were as follows: Santa Cruz landed 255 of 1002 punches for a connect percentage of 25, according to CompuBox.
For his part, Frampton landed fewer shots in connecting on 242 of 668 punches for a connect percentage of 36. Frampton won the fight by the scores 114-114, 117-111 and 116-112. The wide scores by judges Tom Scheck (117-111) and Frank Lombardi (116-112) didn’t go along with the fight that actually took place in the ring. It was a much closer fight than these two judges scored it.
That was the real disappointment because you don’t like to see judges coming up with oddball scores that don’t match the actual fight that took place in the ring. With Santa Cruz landing more punches than Frampton, it makes the judges scores seem illogical=gal and senseless. You’ve got two judges with scores that are out in outer space in terms of reality, and then you have one judge that appeared to be watching the fight with his 114-114 score.
What the final punch stats don’t tell you is when the punches were thrown, and how hard they were thrown. Frampton was fading after the 5th, as Santa Cruz upped the pressure and began to wear the Irish down in the same way that Scott Quigg did last February. In the last seven rounds of the fight, Santa Cruz was on top of Frampton and frequently getting the better of him. The judges that gave Frampton the fight only saw Santa Cruz winning a small handful of rounds, and that’s not what happened in the ring last night.
“You have to look at Frampton and say this guy belongs on any pound-for-pound list,” promoter Lou DiBella said to espn.com “He is brilliant. The work rate in that fight was unbelievable. I say that’s fight of the year — a war fought at that high skill level. Classic stuff.”
For Frampton to be one of the pound-for-pound guys, he needs to win more conclusively in his fights, because the wins over Santa Cruz and Scott Quigg were quite close. The pound-for-pound list is supposed to be for fighters that totally dominate their opposition like Roman Gonzalez and Gennady Golovkin. We’re not seeing that with Frampton.
“It was a great fight. Last time I was here for a big fight, I was talking about a fight of the year. And then we just saw that. That was a fight of the year,” said DiBella. “Frampton fought a brilliant fight. I thought Santa Cruz came on in some rounds. I wouldn’t have been surprised by anything. Frampton came in here and put on a show and Santa Cruz landed some bombs.”
It was a good fight for the most part. The first six rounds lacked action, because both guys were boxing rather than slugging. In the second half of the fight, Santa Cruz stepped up the pressure and took over the contest despite the odd scoring by two of the judges.