LAS VEGAS — Leo Santa Cruz said all along, after losing his first fight to Carl Frampton, that all he needed was his dad back in his corner. Jose Santa Cruz had been diagnosed with cancer a few months earlier and was not in his corner in New York in July.
But Jose was back where his son needed him on Saturday night and, as his son predicted, it made all the difference. Santa Cruz fought a smart, gutty fight, and handed Frampton his first career loss with a majority decision victory in front of a raucous crowd of 10,085 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and a national TV audience on Showtime.
“He did exactly what we practiced in the gym. He boxed and he countered,” Jose Santa Cruz said. “This is better than anything I could have asked for. I’m so happy that I could be in his corner.”
Frampton won the first fight by majority decision in New York in July, when Santa Cruz did what he what he has done for years: Come straight at opponents and try to outslug them. This time he pulled the wool over Frampton’s eyes by boxing instead of fighting.
“He told me what he was going to do, he told me he was going to use his distance, and I thought he was bluffing,” Frampton said. “I thought he’d want to come out and go head first, but he surprised me. He’s a better boxer on the back foot than I give him credit for. Leo can do it all. But I thought he was going to come straight at me.”
The win for Santa Cruz sets up a rubber match, and Frampton said he wanted to make the trilogy next, and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, his hometown, where he has not fought in two years.
“There has to be a trilogy,” Frampton said during his post-fight press conference.”Leo’s a tremendous fighter and he surprised me with his tactics. If I can be honest, Leo deserved to win.”
But Frampton reiterated that the third fight should be in Ireland since the first two were in the U.S. He even made an offer to Santa Cruz.
“Leo can stay at my house if he wants,” Frampton said, only half-kidding.
Santa Cruz, meanwhile, said he’d go to Ireland if necessary. “A champion fights anywhere,” he said.
Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) said before the fight he wanted revenge for the first loss of his career. And it was obvious from the opening bell that he was going to do whatever he needed to do to exact that revenge.
Boxing Frampton was one of those things, and Santa Cruz skillfully kept his distance and used his seven-inch reach advantage to keep Frampton at bay. Many of Frampton’s punches caught only air.
“My head was telling me to go forward and pressure him, but my dad and corner were telling me to box him,” Santa Cruz said. “That’s what I had to do. I always fight for the fans, but tonight I fought for myself, too.”
Judge Burt Clements scored it a draw 114-114. But Dave Moretti and Glenn Feldman both had it 115-113 for Santa Cruz. USA TODAY Sports scored it 116-112 for Santa Cruz.
The proof was in the punch stats. They were solidly in Santa Cruz’s corner. “El Terremoto” landed nearly 100 punches more than Frampton, 230-133 and nearly tripled the number of jabs landed, 81-28.
Santa Cruz, from Los Angeles, started out strong, being the aggressor in the first several rounds. Frampton missed on several wild shots while Santa Cruz used his jab and counter-punching ability to keep Frampton at distance.
But by the fifth round, it appeared Santa Cruz was tiring, and Frampton was getting inside and landing body shots and quick combinations that took a little steam out of Santa Cruz.
But Santa Cruz got his second wind and came on strong in the last four rounds and won several of those rounds on the judges’ scorecards. The late push made the difference.
“We got the belt back,” Santa Cruz said. “I consciously threw less punches than normal. I had to fight smart and I did what I had to do. It felt better with my dad. I always fight for the fans but I also fight for myself.”
Frampton said Santa Cruz used his experience to steal several rounds with flurries at the end, praising Santa Cruz’s ring intelligence in knowing how to do that.
“A couple of rounds that were close, I thought I was doing pretty well, and Leo used his experience and stole them at the end, in the last 15 seconds,” he said. “And I believe he deserved to have his hand raised.”
Santa Cruz had told reporters during fight week that he might retire if he lost a second fight to Frampton.
“Retire? I put retirement in my mind so that I had no choice but to win,” he said afterwards. “This is a big win and I gave it my all and did a great job.”
Frampton offered no excuses. “He told me what he was going to do. The brawler was out-boxing the boxer,” he said. “My fault. I’m sorry. We will have to do it again.”
Ringstar CEO Richard Schaefer, the Premier Boxing Champions fight card’s promoter, was not surprised by Santa Cruz’s performance.
“He was the general in there and he took charge and won the battle,” said Schaefer. “He showed discipline but sometimes got carried away. The Mexican in him got the better of him a few times, but it was a Mexican fight, that’s for sure.”
Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) had brought several thousand Irish fans to Las Vegas to rally him to victory, and they provided great support for the champion from Belfast. They sang and chanted and roared every time Frampton landed a punch.
On this night, however, there simply weren’t enough of them.
(New WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz. left, connects on a punch with Carl Frampton. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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