Leo Santa Cruz reclaimed the WBA Featherweight Championship, executing a brilliant game plan to dethrone Carl Frampton in a rematch of their epic first fight in the main event of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING Saturday in front of 10,085 raucous fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
With the scores 114-114 draw, and 115-113 twice, both fighters now own a majority decision and promised to settle the score in a trilogy.
With fight fans braced for a second terrific instalment of featherweight action tonight in Las Vegas, one half of the rivalry is already talking about a third fight. The July battle between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz was excellent and there is absolutely no reason to think the return bout will be any different.
However, Mexican warrior Santa Cruz fully believes the result will be different in the sequel. Santa Cruz, who lost his unbeaten record and featherweight belt to Irish superstar Frampton, who became a two-weight ruler with the biggest win of his career, puts the defeat down to a bad night. The defending champ was affected by the fact that his father was battling cancer last summer and Santa Cruz insists that with no such distractions he will be at his best.
Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz square-off for the second time this Saturday from Las Vegas, Nevada at the MGM Grand Garden Arena live on Showtime. Can Leo make the necessary adjustments in the rematch or will Frampton’s overall skill be too much again? The co-feature matches former two-weight champion, former pound for pound fighter Mikey Garcia against WBC lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin.
Carl Frampton’s career skyrocketed in 2016 on the strength of two legit fights enough so he won the majority of ‘Fighter of the year’ awards giving out by the press. Just under a year ago Carl defeated previously unbeaten 122-pound champion Scott Quigg in a unification bout in Manchester, England. ‘The Jackal’ moved up to featherweight to face yet another undefeated boxer in Leo Santa Cruz.
Mikey Garcia 134.5 vs. Dejan Zlaticanin 134.5
Josh Taylor 142 vs. Alfonso Olvera 140
Ivan Redkach 137 vs. Desmond Brock 137.5
David Benavidez 166 vs. Sherali Mamajov 167
Herbert Acevedo 141 vs. Chris Singleton 140
Laduan Barthelemy 126 vs. Jesus Aguinaga 126
Antonio Santa Cruz 117 vs. Victor Torres 116
Gerardo Perez 126 vs. Javier Cepeda 125
Carl Frampton is just days away from a second war with Leo Santa Cruz, but the WBA featherweight king is already eyeing up his next fight. Frampton, who defeated Santa Cruz to take the featherweight belt in a classic fight last summer, believes he will triumph again in the return in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Frampton, who picked up the prestigious Fighter of The Year award from Ring Magazine for his 2016 achievements, believes he may even KO the tough Mexican warrior this time. And on the under-card on Saturday at The MGM, IBF featherweight ruler Lee Selby faces his mandatory challenger Jonathan Barrios, with a potentially massive unification fight between the two a strong possibility for later this year – assuming they both win of course.
Kelly Swanson
Thanks everybody for joining us. What an exciting conference call we have today. We’re talking about Carl Frampton versus Leo Santa Cruz, the rematch, as well as Dejan Zlaticanin versus Mikey Garcia.
I just want to mention that SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is Saturday, January 28 live on SHOWTIME. It’s a doubleheader presented in association with Premier Boxing Champions and live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Carl “The Jackal” Frampton has been named THE RING Magazine Fighter of the Year for 2016.
The Northern Irishman separated himself from a tight field of candidates by taking the biggest risks yet emerging victorious in two important fights, decisions over U.K. rival Scott Quigg and American Leo Santa Cruz.
“Obviously it’s a huge honor,” Frampton said when he learned he won the award. “… Toward the end of the year I picked up fighter of the year on some websites but THE RING Magazine, that’s the one. I’m very, very proud of that.”
Former three-division world champion Leo Santa Cruz continued to prepare for his featherweight world title rematch against Carl Frampton and hosted a Los Angeles media workout Tuesday before he headlines action on Saturday, January 28 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and live on SHOWTIME®.
Also working out for the media at Fortune Gym Tuesday were lightweight world champion Dejan Zlaticanin and former two-division champion Mikey Garcia, who meet in the opening bout on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
The superb featherweight battle Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz engaged in last July was, for many people, The Fight of 2016. Back and forth the two unbeaten warriors went, with the intense pace of the high quality fight never once relenting.
Now, in just under a couple of week’s time, the two 130-pounders will do it again – this time at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Both men have promised an improvement on fight-one: Frampton stating how he fully believes he will KO or stop Santa Cruz this time; Santa Cruz vowing he will get revenge for the sole loss of his pro career.
The undefeated Carl “The Jackal” Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) had an extremely successful year in which he elevated himself from a great world champion to one of the best fighters in the world. Frampton went on the road twice to defeat two previously unbeaten elite title holders, Scott Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz, to become a two-division world title holder, making him my 2016 Fighter-of-the-Year.
The IBF featherweight champion went to Manchester, England in February to take on Quigg, the unbeaten WBA champion, in a long awaited featherweight unification bout. Frampton displayed an outstanding jab and great counter punching that helped him outwork and out land Quigg, especially in the first half of the bout. Frampton’s aggressive fighting style and punching power helped him survive a late rally by Quigg and contributed to him breaking Quigg’s jaw. Frampton defeated Quigg by split decision, although the fight was not as close as the decision indicated.