Santa Cruz More at Ease Facing Frampton in Vegas Than Brooklyn

By Keith Idec

The only thing that would be better for Leo Santa Cruz than facing Carl Frampton in Las Vegas would be if their rematch took place in the Los Angeles area.

Santa Cruz still will feel far more comfortable fighting Frampton again Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas than he was when they boxed July 30 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. That wasn’t exactly a hometown fight for Frampton, either, but Frampton estimated about 1,500 fans from his native Northern Ireland and Ireland traveled to New York for that bout, which numerous Irish-Americans also attended.

Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs), who’s from Rosemead, California (near Los Angeles), felt out of his element at Barclays Center. The former three-division champion hasn’t used that as an excuse for his majority decision defeat to Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs), but he has acknowledged that fighting Frampton in Las Vegas will be easier for him.

The native Mexican is undefeated in Las Vegas (6-0, 4 KOs), including four straight fights at MGM Grand Garden Arena from March 2014-September 2015.

“I feel more comfortable there in Vegas,” Santa Cruz said during a conference call last week. “I fought there many times. I think six times I fought there. And I fought on big cards. There was a lot of people and that’s what I love. I love to hear the people cheer for me and scream and motivate me. They give me that extra push.”

The 28-year-old Santa Cruz didn’t sense he had much fan support in Brooklyn and admits it affected him somewhat.

“When you don’t have people cheering for you, like it happened there over in New York, it puts pressure on you and everything,” Santa Cruz. “I think it brings you a little bit down, I guess, but that’s no excuse or nothing. But I am very comfortable and happy for the fight to be here in Vegas because it’s close to L.A. And I know a lot of people are going to come to support me and everything.”

Santa Cruz lost to Frampton on two of three scorecards, as Connecticut’s Frank Lombardi (116-112) and New York’s Tom Schreck (117-111) scored their 12-rounder for Frampton. The third judge, Italy’s Guido Cavalleri, scored Frampton-Santa Cruz even (114-114).

Frampton anticipates approximately 4,000 fans making the trip from the United Kingdom to witness his Las Vegas debut in person. Frampton’s fans figure to be loud, which should make for a dramatic atmosphere Saturday night for a fight Showtime will televise as the main event of a doubleheader (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).

“I know Carl Frampton’s gonna have a lot of support,” Santa Cruz said, “because, you know, they’re gonna take this as a great [chance] to come in, the people from Ireland and everything, England. And they’re gonna come here to get to know Vegas and take that as their vacation and stuff like that.”

“So I know he’s gonna have a lot of crowd, too. And I hope that it’s fair. There won’t be any advantages for me or for him. I want it to be fair and square, so there won’t be no [talk] later that it was [to my advantage]. So I hope it’s 50-50 and that we both get the same respect and everything from both sides.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.