Frampton claims Santa Cruz refuses to fight him
Former two-division world champion Carl Frampton is still itching for a trilogy fight with Leo Santa Cruz, who currently holds the WBA featherweight strap. Frampton, however, contends that Santa Cruz rejects to meet him for the third time.
Frampton handed Santa Cruz the first loss of his career with a narrow majority decision back in 2016 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Santa Cruz got revenge in 2017 when he won a twelve round majority decision over Frampton at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to regain the WBA world title back.
Frampton has made a lot of changes as of late, after suffering an unexpected twelve round decision loss to Josh Warrington back in December of last year.
Santa Cruz is aligned with Premier Boxing Champions, who have deals with Showtime and Fox Sports. Frampton himself was at one time a PBC fighter before signing to Top Rank. Frampton made a move because he got tired of waiting while Santa Cruz fought everyone else.
Since beating Frampton, Santa Cruz has won bouts over Chris Avalos, Abner Mares, and Rafael Rivera. He is expected to return in action later on this year.
Frampton’s primary fight focus has changed to a potential fight with WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez, who is also contracted to Top Rank and ESPN alongside Frampton.
“It could have happened with me and Leo Santa Cruz, but the f****er won’t fight me for the third time,” Frampton said during the TKO Podcast on joe.co.uk.
“I’ve been trying for long enough. I’m giving up! I don’t know [if that fight will happen.] I’ve signed with Top Rank now, so the Oscar Valdez is probably the more realistic one, but I can’t wait on Leo Santa Cruz and let him dictate my career.”
You can catch the whole conversation with the link to the podcast off Youtube below.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
