by David P. Greisman

There was so much happening between Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton, who combined for 12 rounds of action, with nearly 500 punches landed between them out of 1,670 shots thrown. They started strong and ended even stronger, combining for 188 punches in Round 11 and 197 punches in Round 12.

It was a close, competitive fight, something reflected in the scorecards even though two of those three scorecards had Frampton the clear winner.

Frampton took a majority decision. Guido Cavalleri had it 114-114, even at six rounds apiece. He was overruled by Frank Lombardi, who had it 116-112 (eight rounds to four) and Tom Schreck, who had it 117-111 (nine rounds to three).

There was only a one-point difference between Lombardi’s and Shreck’s cards. Yet they disagreed three times: Round 1 (Lombardi had it for Santa Cruz, Schreck had it for Frampton), Round 10 (Lombardi had it for Santa Cruz, Schreck had it for Frampton) and Round 12 (Lombardi had it for Frampton, Schreck had it for Santa Cruz).

The three judges were in agreement in seven of the 12 rounds.

Cavalleri and Lombardi had Santa Cruz winning Round 1. Schreck had it for Frampton.

All three judges had Frampton winning Round 2 and Round 3.

Lombardi and Schreck had Frampton winning Round 4. Cavalleri had it for Santa Cruz.

All three judges had Frampton winning Round 5.

All three judges had Santa Cruz winning Round 6 and Round 7.

All three judges had Frampton winning Round 8 and Round 9.

Cavalleri and Lombardi had Santa Cruz winning Round 10. Schreck had it for Frampton.

Lombardi and Schreck had Frampton winning Round 11. Cavalleri had it for Santa Cruz.

Cavalleri and Lombardi had Frampton winning Round 12. Schreck had it for Santa Cruz.

Cavalleri, the judge who had the fight closest, was actually in the minority just twice. Schreck, the judge who had the fight the widest for Frampton, was in the minority three times.

Lombardi was never in the minority.

If we were to take a score from “majority rules” — in which a fighter gets the edge from at least 2 of the 3 judges for that round, then Frampton would’ve won eight rounds (2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12) and Santa Cruz would’ve won four rounds (1, 6, 7, 10).

The final score would’ve been 116-112 for Frampton, which is how Lombardi had it.

“I thought it was a fair decision,” Lou DiBella, who promoted the card, said afterward. “It was a brilliant, brilliant performance by Carl Frampton. But I also thought it was a close fight.”

DiBella said he had it 6-5-1, a narrow 115-114 win for Frampton.

“I wouldn’t say I’m a great judge, but I think I’m a pretty good judge. I think I’ve seen enough fights to know what I’m doing,” DiBella said. “I thought it was a close fight, but I think Frampton won. And there were so many rounds that were hard to score. I was going to get up here and sort of bash the 117-111 score. I don’t think that represents the fight that you saw, you know what I mean, because it looks so wide.

“But the rounds were so hard to score,” he said. “These guys didn’t take a breath. They were back and forth killing each other. And it was honestly one of the hardest fights I’ve ever seen to score.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com