Carl Frampton vs. Andres Gutierrez on July 29 in Belfast

 

By Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA super bantamweight champion Carl ‘The Jackal’ Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) will be fighting next month against #14 IBF fringe featherweight contender Andres ‘the Jaguar’ Gutierrez (35-1-1, 25 KOs) on July 29 in a scheduled 12 round fight at the SSE Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Frampton really needs a win over Gutierrez, 23, to get back in the thick of things.

This is a fight that Frampton should be able to win without any problems. Gutierrez is a young guy with average punching power, and a good chin. It would be wise for Frampton not to get careless inside the ring with Gutierrez, because he could wind up on the canvas again like he was in his fight against Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. in July 2015. The late Gonzalez Jr. knocked Frampton down twice in round 1 of that fight. Frampton came back to win a 12 round decision. However, he rocked in the 9th round as well by Gonzalez. I rate Gutierrez as a better puncher than Gonzalez Jr. was during his career.

There are better contenders in the featherweight division than Gutierrez, but I guess Frampton might need a confidence booster for him to come back from his recent loss to Leo Santa Cruz. I’d like to have seen Frampton take on Joseph Diaz Jr., Abner Mares, Scott Quigg or Jonathan Barros. At least those fighters can punch a little, and they would keep him honest at least. Ideally, Frampton needs to move back down to 122 and challenge WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux for his title or WBO champion Jessie Magdaleno.

Rigondeaux wanted to fight Frampton, but the Irish fighter never took the fight for some reason. It’s too bad Frampton didn’t step up to the plate and take the risky fight, because at least the boxing public would get a chance to see where he’s at in terms of talent. Frampton’s recent wins over Santa Cruz and Scott Quigg were both controversial. I thought Quigg deserved a draw against Frampton.

Gutierrez comes from Mexico, and he has a flashy looking record at first glance, but when you sift through the entire 8-year resume, you’re left wondering, ‘Where’s the quality opposition hiding at?’ Indeed, Gutierrez has fought pretty much just fluff opposition throughout his career. When Gutierrez did step it up against 35-year-old former IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares last year in June, he lost to him by a close 12 round majority decision.

Mijares is a good contender at featherweight, but he clearly isn’t going to be winning world titles in this weight class. I cannot see that happening. If you put Mijares in with WBC champ Gary Russell Jr., WBA champ Leo Santa Cruz or WBO champion Oscar Valdez, he’s going to be blown out of the water. My point is Gutierrez’s loss to Mijares shows you his limitations as a fighter.

If Gutierrez had some talent, he would have beaten the 35-year-old Mijares just as Leo Santa Cruz did in defeating him by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision on March 8, 2014. That fight wasn’t close at all. Mijares didn’t belong in the same ring with Santa Cruz in losing by the scores 120-108, 120-108 and 110-109. So the fact that Gutierrez couldn’t even beat Mijares, a fighter that Santa Cruz TROUNCED, shows you what kind of opponent Frampton has in front of him for July 29.

This is the first fight for the 30-year-old Frampton since his 12 round majority decision loss to Leo Santa Cruz earlier this year on January 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. I imagine that Frampton is still feeling down in the dumps after losing to Santa Cruz. Well, Frampton only has himself to blame for the defeat. If he’d pushed the pace a little bit more, he might have gotten the win. I’m just saying. If you want to win against the big time fighters like Santa Cruz, you’ve got be able to fight at a fast pace, especially when they’re boxing you and fighting smart.

I think with Frampton, he assumed that Santa Cruz was going to brawl with him like he did in their first fight in 2016. It’s a logical conclusion for Frampton to have made, as Santa Cruz got the better of him with his brawling in the first fight. Santa Cruz and Scott Quigg both showed that Frampton can be beaten by high pressure brawling. Frampton does OK for a while when slugging at a fast pace, but he then gasses out and loses his effectiveness entirely.

You can argue STRONGLY that Frampton has lost his last 2 fights against Santa Cruz though, as Santa Cruz appeared to win the first fight between them too on July 30th last year in 2016 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Frampton was given a very controversial 12 round majority decision. The crowd was a huge pro-Frampton crowd despite the match taking place in the U.S where Santa Cruz lives. The venue was a perfect example of how huge the United States, and how different parts of the country favor different fighters regardless of which country they come from.

Some boxing fans believe that the large pro-Frampton crowd may have influenced the judging with their cheering for Frampton throughout the fight.
Frampton probably would have gotten the third fight with Santa Cruz by now if he hadn’t insisted on the fight taking place in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Frampton feels that because the first 2 fights took place in the U.S, it means that the third fight should be fought in his home country and city in Belfast. What Frampton fails to point out is the first fight between him and Santa Cruz took place in New York in front of a pro-Frampton crowd. New York has a large Irish community in that city. In the eyes of some boxing fans, the first Frampton-Santa Cruz fight was like Frampton being at home in Northern Ireland, battling in front of a friendly crowd that cheered him nonstop. Right now, Santa Cruz and Frampton are 1-1 with each of them having fought in front of fan friendly crowds in the 2 fights.

If there’s going to be a third fight. I don’t think it’s going to happen in the UK. If Frampton is going to insist on the fight taking place in his home country, then I don’t think the two of them will ever fight again. Santa Cruz was arguably robbed once of a decision in is first fight with Frampton. He doesn’t need to be robbed potentially a second time by fighting in Frampton’s home country.

A fair venue for a third fight between Frampton and Santa Cruz would be in Texas or Northern California. Santa Cruz’s fans aren’t in those areas. They’re located in Southern California and Nevada. California is a big state. I don’t see Santa Cruz’s fans traveling from southern California to the Northern part of the state in order to see him fight Frampton. I just don’t see it happening.

Frampton wants to challenge Lee Selby for his IBF featherweight title. I think that’s a better match-up for Frampton than him facing Santa Cruz again right now. Frampton needs to win a title so that when he does face Santa Cruz for a third fight, it would be a unification fight. I still have doubts whether their will ever be a third fight between Frampton and Santa Cruz, because I think Frampton is going to stubbornly insist that the fight take place in the UK instead of a neutral venue.

Santa Cruz isn’t going to do that, because the chances of him winning a decision in the UK are arguably not as good as they would if he fought in a neutral venue. Whatever Frampton does, he needs to get busy with his career, because he’s 30 now, and small fighters often don’t last very long compared to the bigger guys.