By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs) has given up on the idea of trying to lure WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo ‘El Torremoto’ Santa Cruz (34-1-1, 19 KOs) to Belfast, Northern Ireland for a third fight between them. Frampton, 30, now says he’s willing to come to the U.S to face Santa Cruz in Las Vegas, Nevada for a third fight.
By Scott Gilfoid: If Carl Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) wants a third fight against WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs), then he’s probably going to need to agree to fight him in a neutral venue, because his father Jose Santa Cruz is against the idea of the fight taking place in Frampton’s home city of Belfast, Northern, Ireland.
Jose is worried that if Santa Cruz beats Frampton in Belfast, the judges won’t give him the victory. Jose doesn’t want his son to be potentially robbed of a victory. There are a lot of boxing fans who felt that Santa Cruz was already robbed in his first fight against Frampton when he lost a controversial 12 round majority decision on July 30 last year at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
By Scott Gilfoid: In a sign of what could be trouble, former two division world champion Carl “The Jackal” Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) is saying that his next fight will absolutely be in his home city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. That’s bad news for the boxing fans that were hoping to see a third fight between Frampton and Santa Cruz, because it’s never a good sign with the loser of a fight suddenly believes that he can call the short.
The last time I checked, Frampton lost the fight to Santa Cruz in their rematch last month on January 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Granted, the scoring by the three judges was absolutely dreadful in my opinion, but they at least got the scoring right, which is more than I can say about the scoring for the first fight between Santa Cruz and Frampton last July.
By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBA super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg (32-1-2, 24 KOs) says he wants either a rematch against Carl Frampton or a title shot against newly crowned WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) in his next fight. Quigg wants either one of those fights.
Quigg is ranked #5 WBC, #8 WBA in the featherweight division after beating Jose Cayetano on December 10 last year to win the vacant WBA International featherweight title in his first fight back since suffering a broken jaw in a 12 round split decision loss to Frampton on February 27 in 2016.
By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) lost a close 12 round majority decision last Saturday night to Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Immediately after the fight, Frampton worked hard at urging Santa Cruz to do him a favor by not only giving him another rematch but also agreeing to do it in Belfast, Northern Ireland for their trilogy fight.
Frampton is basically asking Santa Cruz for two favors in one after he already got a big favor from his management by agreeing to fight the first fight in New York, which was in front of a pro-Frampton crowd.
By Scott Gilfoid: If there’s going to be a third fight between WBA Super World featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) and former two division world champion Carl Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) this year, then it might need to take place in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
That’s where the 29-year-old Frampton says he wants the fight to take place. Frampton lost to Santa Cruz last Saturday night by a 12 round majority decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was scored 114-114, 115-113 and 115-113. The 29-year-old Frampton admits that he lost the fight, but he says that Santa Cruz stole a lot of rounds by him fighting hard in the last 15 seconds. Frampton saw that as a strategy.
By Scott Gilfoid: Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) showed superb talent in outworking WBA Super World featherweight champion Carl Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was televised by Showtime Championship Boxing in the States.
By Dan Ambrose: Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton fought it out last Saturday night in a contest on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight averaged 480,000 viewers with a peak of 549,000, according to ESPN. While those numbers don’t compare to boxing that is shown on the free networks, they are good ratings for Showtime.
The Santa Cruz-Frampton fight brought Showtime’s highest rated fight on the network in 2016 up until now. The co-feature bout between former two division world champion Mikey Garcia and Elio Rojas brought in good ratings as well in averaging 427,000 viewers. The IBF junior middleweight title eliminator bout between Tony Harrison and Sergey Rabchenko averaged 299,000 viewers.
By Scott Gilfoid: Leo Santa Cruz’s father/trainer Jose feels that his son did not lose the fight to Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) last Saturday night in their fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Santa Cruz was making a routine voluntary defense of his WBA title, but found himself on the losing end of a 12 round majority decision by the scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114. Jose Santa Cruz wants an immediate rematch. Jose spoke to Santa Cruz’s manager Al Haymon to find out if there’s a rematch clause in the contract for their fight, and he told them there was. Frampton’s manager Barry McGuigan didn’t seem to know about the rematch clause when he was asked by the media at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night.
Needless to say, the rematch clause changes everything, because Frampton now won’t be able to go on his merry way to fight a big UK unification fight against British IBF champion Lee Selby next.
(Photo Credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) By Dan Ambrose: For boxing fans interested in seeing a replay of last Saturday’s featherweight clash between WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) and challenger Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs), they can see it tonight on Showtime Extreme at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT. In some circles, they’re calling the Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate.
I’m not sure if it comes even close to the much more exciting fight between Orlando Salido and Francisco Vargas last June. That fight was scored a 12 round draw, but it was still a great fight despite the judges failing to give Salido the win after he got the better of Vargas.