By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Frampton won’t be able to fight a unification match against International Boxing Federation featherweight champion Lee Selby (23-1, 8 KOs) this year in his next fight no matter how much he wants to fight the 29-year-old. Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) needs to fight a rematch against Leo Santa Cruz, who he beat last July at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Santa Cruz had a rematch clause in his contract with Frampton, so he’ll be getting the rematch that he badly wants. If not for the rematch clause, Frampton would likely move on and face Selby next and look to face Santa Cruz in a rematch next year.
Frampton wants to face Selby in an outdoor arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Frampton figures that he’s in the driver’s seat in the fight promotion because he’s a big ticket seller in his home country. Selby, of course, could tell Frampton to get lost if he wanted, but then he wouldn’t get that big payday. Selby would be stuck defending his IBF title against little known contenders that the casual boxing fans have never heard of in his life.
It’s not likely that Selby will be able to hold onto his IBF title for much longer because there are a number of contenders coming down the pipeline that will likely whip him. Frampton is in the same situation with Santa Cruz breathing down his neck.
My guess is Frampton will no longer be the WBA title once he faces Santa Cruz for the second time this year, and that will help Selby get the fight he wants in England rather than having to go to Belfast and fight in front of a bunch of screaming and singing Frampton fans.
“It needs to be spring or early summer because it’s a stadium fight and a unification fight between two British world champions,” Frampton said to skysports.com about the fight against the 29-year-old Selby. “I am stronger than I have ever been and I believe I could win the fight. But these are the fights are the ones I want.”
Yeah, I agree that Frampton whips Selby, but that’s not saying much because I don’t see Selby as being a high level fighter. I rank Selby below Santa Cruz, Oscar Valdez, Gary Russell, Frampton, Jesus Cuellar, Abner Mares and Jessie Magdaleno. I think there are at least five to ten other guys in the featherweight division that would likely beat Selby as well.
Selby is a paper champion in my opinion, and we saw that with the way he struggled in his last two fights against Eric Hunter and Fernando Montiel. Those should have been easy fights for Selby if he was any good, but he struggled and looked poor in both fights.
“I’d love that fight at Windsor Park but I feel, as I am the new WBA champion and even though Lee has been the IBF champion for a few fights now, I am in the driving seat because I sell all the tickets,” said Frampton.
Wow, Frampton reminds me of Saul Canelo Alvarez with the way he’s calling the shots for his fights. First he fights world champion Santa Cruz in New York in front of a huge pro-Frampton audience as the challenger, and now he’s telling Selby how it’s got to be if he wants a fight against him. I personally wouldn’t ever agree to fighting Frampton in New York or Northern Ireland.
If he wanted to fight me in any of those places, I’d tell him to get lost. I’d rather fight other guys than put myself in a position where I would potentially lose a controversial decision like we saw in Santa Cruz losing to Frampton last July. I’m just saying. I had Santa Cruz winning that fight eight rounds to four, but I’m totally not surprised that the judges gave him the win due to the screaming fans cheering every missed punch from Frampton for the entire fight.
If I was scoring the fight, I might have mistakenly given the fight to Frampton too if I didn’t have the luxury of watching the fight at home with the volume turned to zero so that I could actually score the rounds without the pro-Frampton crowd cheering all of his missed punches.
I think it’s going to be academic after Santa Cruz faces Frampton in the rematch this year and beats him soundly. Frampton will come out of that fight powerless to call the shots against Selby. I mean, I don’t see there being any demand for a Frampton vs. Selby fight after that, but if there is, then I don’t see Frampton being able to call the shots at all because he’ll have that big loss to Santa Cruz that will be haunting him. It’ll still be a nice simple domestic level fight between Frampton and Selby, but it won’t be the fight that it would have been had it taken place this year with Frampton still unbeaten and coming off his controversial decision win over Santa Cruz last July.