Carl Frampton vs Leo Santa Cruz - 29/1/17

[Fenster]

Plenty of American fans - including writers and the Santa Cruz team themselves - claimed Cruz was disadvantaged by the first fight being on the east coast. It's naive or disingenuous to claim American based fighters don't receive home advantage.

Cruz himself said - Las Vegas is his second home and will have the greater fan support this time.

Most of it is mentality. So in that sense you can have an advantage. You hear the crowd cheering for you and it pumps you up. The judging in the US can be corrupt like anywhere else in the world, but it's not in favor of the guy from the US necessarily.

It's the same everywhere, the most popular fighter will always seem to be favoured even if not in his home town.

I notice lots of American fans mistakenly assume that "world" title fights in the UK are judged by all Brit officials, which is not true at all. Only in places like Vegas do you see all-American officals doing fights between their fellow countrymen and a foreigner.

I know that judges are generally from different places in the world in bigger fights. The problem is I never hear a Brit being in his home country, or a German being in Germany, or a Japanese being in Japan that gets on the wrong end of a decision in their own country vs someone who isn't from the same country.

In the US, fighters from the US get awful decisions all the time against foreign fighters. It's not really even a debate.

Name one fight where the home country fighter (from a country other than the US) got a screwed on the scorecards. There may be a random one but I can't think of any.

Off the top of my head - Brodie-Jorrin, Crolla-Perez, Kelly-French Euro champ were fights the home/UK fighter was "robbed."

It's the norm to cry robbery in boxing, the problem is, what is a genuine robbery? The majority of the time robberies are close fights that could have gone either way. Every week people are arguing about decisions.

Do American's really get robbed against foreigner's all the time? Even if there are more cases, it could be simply explained by there being more fights there.

[Master]

Leo Santa Cruz takes a swing at Donald Trump as he prepares for Carl Frampton rematch this weekend

He may be here to fight Carl Frampton but Leo Santa Cruz has laid into Donald Trump, writes David Anderson in Las Vegas .

Santa Cruz took aim at new US President Trump took aim at new because of his threat to kick Mexicans like him and his family out of America.

The 28-year-old's mum and dad emigrated to California from Mexico when he was a kid to make a better life for their family.

Santa Cruz epitomises the American dream — from his upbringing in a one-bedroomed house in the rough Los Angeles suburb of Compton, he has risen to become a three-weight world champion.

He even owns one of Floyd Mayweather Junior’s old Lamborghinis, and he is worried by Trump.

“It does concern me a little bit because he’s saying that he wants to kick out Mexicans, Latino people and the people who are immigrants,” said Santa Cruz, who talks almost as fast as he punches. “I wouldn’t like for them to deport my family — my dad, my mom, and a lot of other family.

“If he was only picking the people who are doing drugs and coming here to do bad things, they could deport them but not the people who are doing good, that come here to get a better life for their family. That wouldn’t be fair.

“My mom and dad, they came here from Mexico. They worked hard to give us a better future. I stick to boxing and thanks to the hard work of my parents, I can give my family a great future.”

Santa Cruz’s elder brother Roberto saw his own boxing career ended when he was stricken by the auto-immune disease Lupus.

His dad and trainer Jose was diagnosed with cancer during his camp for the first fight with Frampton last summer.

Jose is now in remission and back in his the corner of his son, who said: “They have been a big inspiration. I have seen them suffer, but that makes me more motivated. If they see me fighting and working hard, that will give them hope to find a way to fight their illness.”

Santa Cruz, who is 32-1-1, felt his father’s illness contributed to the first pro loss of his career when Frampton ended his reign as WBA featherweight king - because he was so worried about him.

He only sat down with Jose, who looks like an extra from a Western with his open-necked cowboy shirt and Stetson, recently to watch the first fight and insists they have devised a winning gameplan for the rematch.


“In the first camp, I was worrying about him — was he still going to be around?” he said. “Now, thank God, the cancer is in remission. He’s doing a lot better and so my mind is clear.”

While Santa Cruz tried to sound confident, he revealed a seed of doubt in his mind when he admitted he could quit the sport if he is beaten at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night.

“I know another loss against Carl Frampton, it could be the end of my career,” he said. “But I’ll come really prepared to get the win and will leave everything in the ring to get it.”

Leo Santa Cruz takes a swing at Donald Trump as he prepares for Carl Frampton rematch this weekend

[Ron Swanson]

How I see the fight going. We will know the outcome early. Frampton needs to land some crisp shots to make Cruz think. Like he did early in the first fight. Cruz will want to make it a grinder, action action action so stamina wins out. If Cruz gets the pace up early and Frampton can't land some nice flush shots to slow him down we'll be in for a barn burner and a Cruz victory. Really on the fence with this one so I'll take Cruz tomorrow and Frampton in the 3rd go.

[Dean Duke]

https://youtu.be/5zP012_TQEY

Crus looks worried, shame about the Selby fight being off.

[Master]

https://youtu.be/5zP012_TQEY

Crus looks worried, shame about the Selby fight being off.

Yes Selby is very upset and who can blame him. They said opponent may have hep B.

[Spicoli]

Young Josh Taylor getting all he can handle in 1st round vs Alfonso Olvera airing on Showextreme! Taylor gets second warning for low blows

[Kirkland Laing]

Evening chaps. Two cards tonight so it's try and watch two bloody screens at once as the main events are bound to be on top of each other. Who the fuck is Anna Woolhouse?

[Kirkland Laing]

I'm guessing this is Jose Benavidez' brother. Dealing very well with a midget tomato can.

[superheavyrhun]

Fair play to Josh Taylor, he looked pretty good against a tough Mexican opponent. Can't wait for Trump's wall to go up so British prospects can fight dodgy prospects from Idaho who haven't fought anyone who owned their own gloves.

[Spicoli]

Evening chaps. Two cards tonight so it's try and watch two bloody screens at once as the main events are bound to be on top of each other. Who the fuck is Anna Woolhouse?

Hate when they do that. HBO looks bit underwhelming compared. Benavides doing his best Chavez jr impersonation here, at least 20 lbs heavier than Mamadjanov.

[Kirkland Laing]

Unbelievably I might have managed to drink too much to make the final bell tonight. I'm going for Frampton anyway. I think he'll manage to fight less and box more and win this. Whether the judges see it the same way I don't know. Last chance saloon for Santa Cruz so he's going to be properly amped up for this. Maybe he draws Frampton into a war. Fuck it. Frampton wins it clear enough that the judges can't rob him.

[Kirkland Laing]

What a first defence for the Montenegrin kid.

[Kirkland Laing]

Mikey not looking remotely rusty is he.

[Batman]

Evening kids

I've only just got up for this one, Garvia v Zlaticanin is on at the moment (rd 2)

have I missed anything?

Frampton FTW by the way

[Master]

Garcia looks awesome. I am tired and will go to bed now.