Santa Cruz vs. Frampton Results:
In the highly anticipated Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton featherweight title showdown, Frampton earned a majority decision win from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, in the headline event of a five-fight Showtime Championship Boxing and Showtime Extreme telecast.
Santa Cruz vs. Frampton represented a clash of unbeatens, and one of the most tantalizing matches that could have been made across the entire the sport. While Santa Cruz had the size and work rate on his side, Frampton had the crowd, and ultimately, what proved to be the determination and power.
Frampton won the first half of the bout, controlling matters by upsetting Santa Cruz’s pace with crisp, well-timed counter punches. When both connected, his were the harder shots, and when Santa Cruz advanced, he used exceptional head movement and body control to evade incoming fire.
Santa Cruz ultimately made matters closer, as he continued to press and Frampton perhaps faded just a bit from his earlier momentum. Still, both men were winging by the final bell, and Frampton appeared to have clearly won the day.
An oddball 114-114 scorecard made matters interesting, but the prevailing 116-112 and 117-111 cards which followed settled matters appropriately.
In the co-feature fight of the evening, Mikey Garcia made his return to the ring after a more than two year absence due to promotional issues. If there were questions as to how the time off would hinder him, those were quickly answered, as the unbeaten former top pound for pound candidate scored a resounding stoppage win:
Opponent Elio Rojas was more than game in facing Garcia, and continued to get up off the canvas after repeated knockdowns. However, a motivated, fresh Garcia was far too much for him. Now, Mikey has his sets on the lightweight division, and appears to be an immediate threat for top honors in the weight class.
In earlier action…
- Tony Harrison scored a 9th round TKO win over Sergey Rabchenko in a battle of once-beatens, after sending Rabchenko down to the canvas in that stanza.
- Paulie Malignaggi earned a clear, fairly easy decision over Gabriel Bracero. Malignaggi went on to call the main Showtime tripleheader which followed his bout, in an unprecedented one-two punch of action.
- Tevin Farmer scored a dominant one-sided decision over Ivan Redkach.
