Carl Frampton: record, next fight and profile →
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.
For most of the last twenty years, we have been able to count on the area of the scale once considered classic featherweight. 122 and 126 lbs. have delivered too many times to count. We thought it might earlier this year in a unification clash between Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg. Frampton boxed too well for too long to let a classic break out.
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.
Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza is excited about Saturday night’s featherweight title fight between Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton, not only for what the bout itself could be on fight night, but also because of how it plays into the bigger picture.
Carl Frampton’s promoter believes Leo Santa Cruz avoided Frampton when both were competing in the junior featherweight division. Now Santa Cruz is a featherweight titleholder, and he will be defending against Frampton on Saturday night at Barclays Center.
Ask Barry McGuigan about what he wants if his fighter, Carl Frampton, tops featherweight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz on Saturday night in Brooklyn, and McGuigan will correct you:
Leo Santa Cruz stands 2½ inches taller than Carl Frampton and owns a seven-inch reach advantage over him. But now that they’ve met the 126-pound limit for their featherweight title fight Saturday night, Santa Cruz expects Frampton to add more weight than him and enter the ring the heavier fighter. Northern Ireland’s Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) will make his debut as a full-fledged featherweight when he challenges Santa Cruz (32-0, 18 KOs), but the 5-feet-5 former IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion has acknowledged his significant struggles in recent years to meet the 122-pound limit.
It's cliched but it's true; all things being equal, the good big man will always defeat the good little man. Given that the slightly bigger Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) also has an edge over Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) in power, quality of opposition and punch resistance, the outcome of this fight seems like a no-brainer.
Carl Frampton fights for the title once held by his manager Barry McGuigan on Saturday when he challenges Leo Santa Cruz. He meets the Mexican-American WBA featherweight title holder at the Barclays Centre in New York, 21 years after McGuigan won it from Eusebio Pedroza at Loftus Road to become a world champion.
By Keith Idec - If Leo Santa Cruz can overcome Carl Frampton on Saturday night, Santa Cruz-Gary Russell Jr. is the most meaningful fight that can be made within the featherweight division. Santa Cruz would remain unbeaten in that scenario. Russell, meanwhile, has responded well to the only loss of his pro career...