McGuigan: No Size Advantage for Santa Cruz vs. Frampton

by David P. Greisman

This will be Carl Frampton’s first fight at featherweight in a long time.

He was between 124 and 126 pounds for four of his first six fights. But otherwise Frampton has long been a junior featherweight. He left that division in February after unifying two world titles at 122, opting both for the options at featherweight as well as the leeway on the scale after what he said was a year and a half of difficulty making weight.

His first challenge at featherweight is a tough one: Leo Santa Cruz, a titleholder and one of the top talents in the sport. But Frampton’s promoter, Barry McGuigan, doesn’t think there’s a disadvantage for his fighter moving up from 122 to take on an established presence at 126.

“I don’t believe Santa Cruz is actually a big featherweight,” McGuigan told BoxingScene.com after Frampton weighed in on Friday. “I think he moved up because simply there were too many challenges at 122, and the easy way around it was to go up to 126.”

Santa Cruz won world titles at 118 and 122 before moving up to 126. For a time, he and Frampton were both in the junior featherweight division.

“We’ve been chasing him since 2013,” McGuigan said. “We got into mandatory position, and he wouldn’t take the fight. So we had to go back and fight Kiko [Martinez in a rematch, this time for a world title other than the one Santa Cruz had at the time]. We did a number of defenses and unified in the 122-pound division. Now he’s stepped up to 126.

“But Carl will be the bigger man. You look at him at the weight. There’s very little difference between the two. Yes, in height, but in size Carl’s the much bigger specimen. So we’re not worried about the fact that it’s Santa Cruz in the first fight. We’ve always believed that Carl can beat Santa Cruz.”

Santa Cruz was 125.5 pounds on the scales on Friday, while Frampton was 125.25. It remains to be seen what they’ll weigh on fight night, who will actually be the bigger man and — more importantly — the winner.

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