Sky Sports recently launched an online poll, asking fight fans to vote for who they feel is the best of the current British world champions. With an impressive 14 reigning world champions to pick from (an amazing achievement for British boxing; with champions at heavyweight all the way down to bantamweight) fans who voted had a tough task.
In the end, 400,000 fight fans cast their vote and the results came in as follows:
It could be boxing’s next great rivalry. Newly crowned WBA featherweight champion Carl Frampton, just over a week on from his terrific and thrilling win over Leo Santa Cruz, is already calling for the rematch. Frampton, who became a two-weight ruler with the July 30 win, wrote in The Sunday Life yesterday how he wants the rematch this year, before Christmas.
Irish warrior and new WBA featherweight king Carl Frampton is still celebrating his terrific win over Leo Santa Cruz in a definite FOTY candidate; at least “The Jackal’s” army of fans are still celebrating. And the reasons to be upbeat if you are a Frampton fan just keep coming. As per a story on Irish-Boxing.com, Frampton is now ranked in the top-10 pound-for-pound boxers in the world with The Transnational Boxing Ranking Board.
In a sign of how good a year it has already been for boxing here in 2016, we have at least four absolutely cracking fights being looked at as candidates for winning this year’s FOTY distinction – and as great as these fights have been, we still have some potential thrillers to look forward to in the remaining five months of the year.
So far, fans and experts are agreed how the Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter fight, the Orlando Salido-Francisco Vargas fight and the more recent Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz fight are all up there as genuine FOTY candidates. I would like to add to the list the terrific Jamie Conlan-Anthony Nelson fight.
Irish warrior Carl Frampton, now a two-weight world champion, arrived as a genuine star, maybe even a future superstar, with his thrilling FOTY candidate of a win over Leo Santa Cruz. The new WBA featherweight king overcame odds that were against him as he won in New York. Now, with so many big fight options open to him, “The Jackal” can reap the rewards of his success as he searches for more.
Who should Frampton fight next?
Carl Frampton wants to become known as the greatest fighter ever to have come out of Ireland, and last night, with his terrific win over an excellent defending champion in Leo Santa Cruz, “The Jackal” took one huge stride towards achieving his goal. Out-pointing the relentless defending WBA featherweight champion, Frampton boxed superbly and he is now a two-weight world ruler. All congratulations and respect go out to Frampton and he will now head back to a hero’s reception in Belfast.
The big question is what next for Frampton, and Santa Cruz? Last night’s fight was all that is great about boxing: two fine, unbeaten athletes in their prime, exchanging quality punches throughout, not a clinch in sight, the fans thrilled to the very end. And the final result of the fight was hanging in the balance until the very end – or so we thought. Once again – and not at all wanting to rain on Frampton’s parade – the boxing judges came close to spoiling a magical occasion. As it turned out, only one of the three officials had the fight hanging in the balance until the very end. Was Frampton really a 4-point winner? A SIX-point winner! No way. The draw handed in by the third official was more on the money, and it really was quite staggering hearing how one judge had Santa Cruz winning just three rounds!
(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) BROOKLYN (July 31, 2016) – In a possible “Fight of the Year” showdown between two undefeated fighters, Carl Frampton edged Leo Santa Cruz in a firefight to capture the WBA Featherweight World Championship in the main event of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® Saturday in front of 9,062 fans at the electric Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs), the former unified super bantamweight champion who moved up to 126 pounds to challenge Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs), became the first native of Northern Ireland to become a two-division world champion.
(Photo credit Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) This Saturday night undefeated pugilists risk their O’s in a classic style-matchup that continues the oldest argument amongst fight fans. Leo Santa Cruz made a big statement last August when he beat three-weight champion Abner Mares. His counterpart, Carl Frampton, comes in to this dual fresh off the heels of his most impressive win over previously unbeaten Scott Quigg. The Barclays Center will serve as a middle-ground of sorts with UK fans traveling across the pond and it being Santa Cruz’s first time in New York period.
A year ago this scribe, like many, favored Carl Frampton to outmaneuver Leo on his way to a clear victory. That was before each combatant’s had faced Mares or Quigg. Having seen the combination of Santa Cruz adding to his tool belt and Carl withering a bit down the stretch, has changed things.
LONDON (29 July) – Carl Frampton insists that size won’t be a factor when he faces Mexican world champion Leo Santa Cruz this Saturday night.
The Belfast boxing ace faces his biggest test to date when he steps in against the taller and rangier Santa Cruz, who has two-and-a-half-inches over him in height and a telling seven-inch reach advantage.
(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) Has tomorrow night’s WBA featherweight title clash between defending champion Leo Santa Cruz and challenger and super-bantamweight champ Carl Frampton been given enough hype? Has the clash of unbeatens been given the respect and attention it deserves? There are a number of internet articles out there pushing the fight, mostly Irish websites doing the work it must be said, but there doesn’t really seem to be a massive buzz surrounding this fight; a fight that really does deserve to be looked at as a potential classic.
Frampton’s not at all bothered by the lack of hype; as he made clear on his Twitter page an hour ago: “No hype required. Real fighters fight!” he wrote.