Leo Santa Cruz regains belt with majority decision over Carl Frampton
Leo Santa Cruz said it was a big relief to take the inspired stand he made Saturday night.
The Los Angeles boxer not only avenged his only loss, he handed gritty champion Carl Frampton his lone defeat, recaptured the featherweight belt he lost six months earlier and injected his sport with a compelling rivalry that begs for more.
Santa Cruz (33-1-1) edged Frampton (23-1) by majority decision at MGM Grand, with judges Dave Moretti and Glenn Feldman giving him 115-113 scores after judge Burt Clements turned in a 114-114 card.
“We got the belt back,” Santa Cruz said. “I had to fight smart. I did what I had to do.”
Three-division champion Santa Cruz, after getting struck by Frampton’s more defining blows in his July loss, made a point of relying on his seven-inch reach advantage in this meeting to set up more effective punches with his jab.
Punch stats revealed Santa Cruz outlanded Frampton, 230-133, in punches, and 81-28 in jabs.
Frampton possesses a rematch clause and has said he’d like to bring a third meeting to his hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland, later this year. After the bout, the fighters embraced and said, “Let’s do it again.”
Santa Cruz credited an uninterrupted training camp under his father, Jose Santa Cruz, for maximizing a fight plan that left Frampton reddened under the right eye with a knot on his forehead.
“[Leo] did exactly what we practiced in the gym,” Jose Santa Cruz said. “He boxed and he countered. This is better than anything we can ask for.”
There was no give in Santa Cruz after he was rocked to the ropes in the second round of the first clash.
This time, he immediately made it clear he’d be content at times to jab, but his desire to engage couldn’t be refused and Santa Cruz was seen gasping after one of the bout’s repeated entertaining exchanges at the close of the sixth round.
“I always fight for the fans, but tonight, I also fought for myself,” said Santa Cruz, whose desperation to gain revenge was so impassioned he said before the fight that he might retire if Frampton won again.
“I put retirement in my head to tell myself I had no choice except win,” he said. “I gave it my all and I did a great job.”
While he was willing to participate in toe-to-toe exchanges like one in the sixth, Frampton found himself in Santa Cruz’s first-fight shoes, rocked by a big punch in the seventh and showing rare discouragement after consecutive Santa Cruz combinations landed in the ninth.
“It was a very tough fight. There were a lot of close rounds, but Leo deserves it,” Frampton said.
Another belt is returning to Southern California, too.
Mikey Garcia won the World Boxing Council lightweight belt by knocking out Dejan Zlaticanin in the third round.
A massive Garcia punch literally knocked out Zlaticanin, who was motionless on his back for several seconds as Riverside’s Garcia (36-0, 30 knockouts) claimed his third division title.
“It was a great performance,” Garcia said of the knockout that came 2 minutes 21 seconds into the third as Zlaticanin dropped to 22-1.
Garcia set the tone by popping Zlaticanin with jabs in the first round, complementing those with stiff power blows to the head. When Zlaticanin sought to land his heavy left, Garcia either defused it with movement or followed with a power punch.
“I fought smart, kept my distance and range,” Garcia said. “We had a great game plan to stick to my jab.”
Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire
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