By Keith Idec
Even while preparing for his own fight later Saturday, Leo Santa Cruz will pay close attention to the Carl Frampton-Scott Quigg clash Saturday.
“Of course I’m gonna be interested in that fight,” Santa Cruz said during a conference call Monday. “I’m gonna be watching it. I would love to fight the winner of that fight. Hopefully I’ll get the win that night. Then I definitely would like to fight the winner of Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton.”
Santa Cruz (31-0-1, 17 KOs), of Rosemead, California, is scheduled to oppose Spain’s Kiko Martinez (35-6, 26 KOs) in the main event of Showtime’s telecast Saturday night from Honda Center in Anaheim, California (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. ET). Earlier Saturday, Showtime Extreme is set to broadcast the highly anticipated Frampton-Quigg 122-pound championship unification fight from Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.
The 28-year-old Frampton (21-0, 14 KOs), of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the 27-year-old Quigg (31-0-2, 23 KOs), of Bury, England, will fight for Frampton’s IBF super bantamweight championship and Quigg’s WBA world 122-pound title.
“They didn’t want the fight since I was at 122,” said Santa Cruz, who’ll defend the WBA “super” featherweight title. “And I think that they’re talking about that this is gonna be their last fight at 122, and that they wanna move up to 126. I would definitely like the winner if everything goes good for me.”
While he wants to win impressively against Martinez and land a fight against the Frampton-Quigg victor, the 27-year-old Santa Cruz doesn’t feel too much additional pressure to beat Martinez more convincingly than they did. Quigg knocked out Martinez in the second round July 18 in Manchester, 10 months after Frampton defeated Martinez by unanimous decision in a 12-rounder in Belfast.
“It’s important to look spectacular against Kiko Martinez and try to beat him better than Scott Quigg and Frampton did, just to show I’m up there at their level or even better,” Santa Cruz said. “I’m gonna be smart. I’m gonna go out there and if the fight goes fast, that’s good. But if not, I’m gonna be smart, make that fight on my side and just get the victory.
“Styles make fights. Maybe they could beat him faster than me. Quigg beat him in the second round. Maybe, with me, he could go the distance, or I could finish him in the eighth or ninth. But it doesn’t matter. Styles make fights. It’s not just because they beat him better than me, that means they’re gonna beat me. I just have to go out there and fight a great fight.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
