This Friday, both Barry
McGuigan and Carl Frampton confirmed via Twitter that the eagerly anticipated
fight between the ‘Jackal’ and Mexican, Leo Santa Cruz is set to take place in
New York City in July for Santa Cruz’s WBA (super) featherweight title. This is
a huge fight between two stars who are yet to face defeat in their professional
careers which means that someone’s 0 will have to go.
Northern Irishman, Carl
Frampton, ended his 4 and a half year feud with Scott Quigg after he won a
split-decision in Manchester back in February and in doing so unifying the WBA
and IBF super-bantamweight titles. However the scorecards did not do Frampton’s
performance justice as he out-fought and out-boxed Quigg throughout in a fight
which many scored far wider than the judges at ringside.
Frampton had a number
of options after unifying the belts at super-bantamweight. He was mandated by
both the IBF and WBA to fight Shingo Wake and Pound-For-Pound star, Guillermo
Rigondeaux respectively. However the 21-0 fighter turned both of them in his
search to become a two-weight world champion. Many will argue that Frampton
ducked the true champion at super-bantamweight Rigondeaux and as a sports fan I
want to see the best fighting the best. However realistically, the Santa Cruz
fight gives Frampton a much larger payday against a fighter he has a much
greater chance of beating.
Three-weight world
champion Leo Santa Cruz, has yet to taste defeat in his 33 fight career. Santa
Cruz is a renowned volume puncher who can average over 100 punches a round. He
was extremely impressive in his break out fight against former three-weight
world champion Abner Mares throwing over 1000 punches in the fight and winning
a majority decision.
However many will argue
that he is yet to be tested by a fully-fledged featherweight. Both his last two
opponents Martinez, who was shot, and Mares, started their careers at
bantamweight like Santa Cruz so if he is to prove he is the real deal at
featherweight he will have to fight the likes of Selby, Russell Jr. and Valdez.
Again, from the
perspective of Santa Cruz, he is fighting another big name who is moving up in
weight to fight him. Having said that Frampton will be no easy touch. His slickness
and ability to box on both the front foot and the back foot should give Santa
Cruz problems but it is whether he can land shots of his own on the much
rangier fighter which will decide how he goes in the fight.
This is a fascinating
fight which will have fans split down the middle. Frampton is yet to fight at featherweight and his frame suggests that he will be at a major
disadvantage in height and reach, as he will be giving away 18cm come fight
night. We know what Santa Cruz will do but it is a question of whether Frampton
will be able to negate the explosiveness and sheer volume of Santa Cruz’s
punches which will determine who comes out on top in July.
Tom Eckett
@boxingguru44
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