Santa Cruz with right game plan for Frampton

By Scott Gilfoid: Leo Santa Cruz feels that he’s improve since his loss to Carl “The Jackal” Frampton last July, and he plans on getting inside the ring and showing it on January 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) knows what he did wrong in his previous fight against the unbeaten Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs), and he plans on correcting all of those mistakes when he faces the 29-year-old Irish fighter in the rematch on Showtime Championship Boxing.

The WBC Diamond strap will be up for grabs in the Frampton-Santa Cruz rematch. It’s nice little trinket for the winner. However, it doesn’t mean nearly as much for the winner as getting the victory and moving on.

It’s really important for Santa Cruz to beat Frampton this time, because another defeat would be a disaster. The previous loss for Frampton was more controversial than anything though, because Santa Cruz dominated the last seven rounds of the fight after struggling in the first five. Frampton fell completely apart in the second half of the fight due to the pressure that Santa Cruz was applying.

“I am excited anxious and happy to step back in the ring,” said Santa Cruz to fightnews.com. “I want to go out and show what I have worked on. I feel great with strength and conditioning and power. This camp has been good. I want to show I am better than Carl Frampton.”

That’s good news that Santa Cruz has worked on the areas that he had problems with the last time he fought Frampton, but I think he already had the existing talent to beat him the last time. The only thing that was messed up was Santa Cruz getting stuck in Plan-A for too long of a time without him switching to Plan-B when it was clear that things weren’t working out well for him. It was a strange idea in the first place for Santa Cruz to go into the Frampton fight choosing to fight him on the outside rather than using the blueprint created by Scott Quigg to pressure him on the inside.

The blueprint was already there for Santa Cruz to follow for 12 rounds to beat Frampton, and he chose not to use it. Santa Cruz used the blueprint in how to beat Abner Mares by staying on the outside and trying to jab. That approach didn’t work against Frampton, because he was able to slip the jab all night and dart forward to land single pot shots.

Santa Cruz’s dad wasn’t there for him the last time he fought Frampton, and that seemed to change things dramatically. Santa Cruz wasn’t the same fighter without his dad there. This time his father will be in his corner helping him and motivating him to beat Frampton.

“I have been here for this entire camp,” said Santa Cruz’s dad. It has been great with training and sparring. I believe me not being present for the last camp affected him.”

So there it is. Santa Cruz is going to be fully ready for Frampton this time, and he’ll have the right plan and his dad there to oversee it.