By Edward Chaykovsky
Barry McGuigan, manager and trainer for WBA/IBF super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (22-0, 14KOs), would love to match his fighter against WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18KOs).
Both boxers were in action on the same date, two weeks ago, on different continents.
Frampton unified his two world titles with a twelve round decision over longtime domestic rival Scott Quigg. Santa Cruz was in action in California, where he knocked out former champion Kiko Martinez in five rounds. Frampton holds two wins over Martinez.
Right now Frampton has to mandatory defenses to deal with. The WBA ordered a match against Guillermo Rigondeaux, and the IBF ordered a mandatory against Shingo Wake.
McGuigan hints that one of the two titles is likely getting dropped. Wake appears to be the most obvious next opponent.
"Doubling up on belts is great in theory, but in practice success gets complicated," McGuigan told The Mirror. "But he can't meet both within the short time frames imposed. Clearly there is a big decision to make about Frampton's next move, but what I can say is there will be no immediate rematch with Quigg."
Frampton and Santa Cruz are both advised by Al Haymon, and they both have appeared under the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella.
"The boxing salons would prefer a super-fight with WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz, who stopped Kiko Martinez on the same night Frampton saw off Quigg. That is a fight we would love, and I guarantee it would be the barn-burner that everybody wanted to see against Quigg. But before we sit down to consider our plans we are taking a few days to let the dust settle," McGuigan said.
