Preview: Frampton v Santa Cruz II

In the early hours of Sunday 29th January 2017, I shall be waking up in a hotel room in Manchester, after being at the Two Door Cinema Club concert; to watch what I am hoping to be a fight of the year contender. Frampton vs Santa Cruz II has all the hallmarks to be a classic trilogy comparable to Morales and Barrera. The infamous MGM Grand Las Vegas hosts this WBA fight between two multiple weight world champions who previously fought a close "fight of the year" candidate. The first fight is a great place to because even now you can find people disputing the result. I still to this day debate with the Boxing Banter crew as to who won. Many criticised the scoring of two judges who scored it 116-112 and 117-111 as the fight felt closer than this. Although I must confess, on reflection now I scored it the same as the judges to Frampton, but a narrow win indeed. However, despite the scoring the fighters and the fight drew praise from all commentators and was rightly considered for fight of the year. Frampton winning his second weight world title cemented himself on the USA stage, introduced himself to the featherweight division with this huge upset and is now being considered in the P4P top 10. He started the fight quickly, with good movement and an array of punches; even rocking the champion in thr second round. Shane Mguigan pinpoints this as the moment the fight changed as Santa Cruz got rocked and Frampton "gained his respect" Santa Cruz whom many thought had started the fight too slowly livened up in the second half of the fight and started to look more like the champion and fighter we know with his volume and crisp long punches. Both men threw everything they had throughout the 12 rounds, and that's why we are here today waiting for the rematch in star studded Vegas. Carl Frampton the unbeaten super bantamweight and featherweight champion from Belfast is making his Las Vegas debut. I remember the first fight I saw him in and being very impressed by his boxing ability; I was quickly a team Frampton man whilst many joined team Quigg (sky reserved the right to change their minds whenever),It was enjoyable watching these two fighters careers progress next to each other knowing they would eventually meet. Being in Ireland for Frampton’s first world title win was such an amazing experience , every Irish man was backing their man and when his hand was lifted it is not an exaggeration to say every person in Ireland was cheering. The Alcohol was flowing and it felt like a national occasion. One can only draw parallels between Frampton and his Manager/Promotors Barry Mguigan who would command a moment of peace between bitter rivalries every time he fought. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing the Irish support in Las Vegas this weekend. There was a comparison made between Frampton and Ricky Hatton regarding their impact on the Vegas strip. Hatton made his debut in Vegas ten years ago and never looked back; making it his adopted home for his mega fights and I certainly agree Frampton could bring the support to do the same. Hopefully Frampton’s tenure on the strip will be more successful in terms of big fight wins as Vegas would certainly welcome him with open arms if he can bring anything near the numbers Hatton and the UFC’s Connor McGregor have amassed. Frampton’s boxing ability and game ness to fight anyone was deserving of the Ring Magazine Fighter of the year award last year. He is one of those boxers who does everything well, he has a good defence, good offence and good footwork his accuracy as well is good and It is something often underrated about him. He has no natural flaws to his game. He can box on the outside or fight on the inside as we saw against Santa Cruz in the first fight. However where he does pick up criticism is in his stamina and his work-rate, as he does appear in his fights to slow in the second half and get outworked by his opponents. This was an argument levied in both the Quigg and Santa Cruz fight although he has a good round 12 in both. This criticism Is somewhat unjustified if you look at the santa cruz fight; he came on strong in the later rounds and gave as good as he got and even landed the more shots. Although santa cruz threw more and looked the busier frampton was consistently landing at a higher success rate and avoiding Cruz's shots. Frampton's shots seemed to have a noticeable impact at times as opposed to Santa Cruz which Shane Mguigan stated were "bouncing off Carl's Head". It could be argued that rather than tire; frsampton is to cautious to press home his advantage and keeps doing what is working and this is allowing his opponents the opportunity to get back into the fight and fighters of the callibre of Cruz and Quigg are capable of clawing back fights. This could be the only criticism of Frampton In a so far dazzling career. Leo Santa Cruz a three weight world champion was undefeated prior to the first fight and held by many as a favourite. He was the king of Featherweight and no many saw him being dethroned. However the fighter who turned up to fight Frampton was not what we expected. The fast pace, relentless punching mexican was not present he seemed pedestrian for the first half of the fight, not using his strengths and was getting caught to much. Although he came back in the later rounds he was arguably still not at his best. There are a lot of reasons that were cited for his performance, being personal issues outside the ring with his Dad battling Cancer, and also maybe that he underestimated Frampton to a certain extent. I do agree it was a sub standard performance and I hope he is going to turn up this fight. Many commentators felt that if Cruz had started the fight with the level of intensity that he finished he would have blown Frampton away. Overall this has the makings to be an incredible rematch and there are still lots of questions from the first fight that need answering. I personally want to see the Santa Cruz who gained the nickname 'El Terremento' have a higher volume and fast pace. One of the things that won Frampton the first fight was his ability to take half a step back and time Santa Cruz. Although Santa Cruz openly admitted that it was a key factor and Frampton was "timing him", I still struggle to see how he can negate this to win the fight. From Frampton I want to see the same accuracy and shot selection from the first fight but I want him to press on in the later rounds and dominate. Also a lot of speculation has been made about Santa Cruz's tell of twisting his right hand whilst up as a guard, could Frampton time this and use it to his advantage? Poker and chess analogies in boxing are widely over used, however in this instance it seems fitting. Cruz is not a knockout artist I do not see him stopping Frampton, however Framptom knows he can hurt Cruz and that he was not hurt in the first fight. Hopefully we will see a more confident aggressive Frampton and after a competive opening I think Frampton will earn a stoppage win (yep I'm going there and being bold). I am also concerned about hearing Santa Cruz saying he is considering retiring, no one ever likes to hear this before a fight lets hope he is in a good place and he is using it merely to get inside Frampton's head. Please let us know what you think in the comments or tweet us. And I hope you all enjoy an incredible occasion and soak in the atmosphere from the fans in Vegas! Perhaps we can be walking in a Frampton wonderland! Picture courtesy of SkySports

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