Leo Santa Cruz: The Pressure Is On Me In Carl Frampton Fight

by David P. Greisman

Leo Santa Cruz is the American fighter in the main event in New York City, but it’s not like he has the home country advantage.

Santa Cruz hails from California, after all, and in his 33-fight career he has only fought on the East Coast of the United States twice before — once in 2009 in Pennsylvania and once in 2010 in Maryland.

It was his opponent for Saturday, Carl Frampton, who brought a sizable number of fans to the Big Apple. They sang during the weigh-in, cheered loudly for Frampton and booed Santa Cruz.

“It’s not my hometown,” Santa Cruz said shortly after weighing in. “I’m the one who’s going to feel the pressure, but that’s all right. I’m going to go out there and give my best and bring my best fight to the fans.”

He’s making the second defense of a world title he won in August 2015 in a majority decision over Abner Mares. His last outing was a shootout victory over Kiko Martinez in February.

Frampton is a rising 122-pounder who unified two titles in that division on the same day as Santa Cruz-Martinez. He believes he’ll be stronger at 126.

Santa Cruz is 32-0-1 with 18 KOs. Frampton is 22-0 with 14 KOs. Their fight is the main event of a Showtime broadcast airing from Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

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