Leo Santa Cruz Motivated to Force a Rubber Match with Carl Frampton

The sweat was still glistening. The bruises were still forming.

And the echo of ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr.'s decisive words was still burning in Leo Santa Cruz’s ears last summer as he headed back toward his dressing room at the Barclays Center.

Within moments, the seeds for a dramatic strategic overhaul were already being planted.

"After the fight was over, I knew that I was fighting his height, and I wasn’t using my reach," he told Bleacher Report. "I was leaning in there with him and banging, brawling, and he had the advantage because he’s a lot shorter than me. If we fight inside, his arms are shorter and his hands get there before, so my thing I have to do is use my reach from the outside because I’m longer and my hands are going to get there faster.

"That’s what I realized, right after the fight."

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Right after his unbeaten pro record—he’d entered the ring with 32 wins and a draw—and the WBA featherweight belt it had yielded were yanked away by Carl Frampton via majority decision.

Santa Cruz will have waited 182 days for redemption by the time Saturday night arrives, but it’s a penance he won’t mind having served if he emerges from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a victory over his lone conqueror and his championship status restored.

The two men will headline a two-bout card being broadcast by Showtime beginning at 10 p.m. ET.

"I thought right away that I could have improved or done a lot better, but it was already too late," he said. "When I got the rematch, I swore that I’d do everything perfect and be smarter, and when it comes to the mistakes I made, improve them and not make them anymore."

His chief faux-pas from the first go-round? Not being ready for a foe who flipped the script.

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Frampton had shown aggressive tendencies while winning a belt of his own at 122 pounds, and Santa Cruz said he expected the Northern Irishman—who’d won 14 of 22 fights by KO—to be more willing to engage in toe-to-toe combat in his attempt to become a two-division champion.

Instead, the shorter, quicker man maxed out his edges in hand and foot speed, controlling the distance, readying himself for counter-punch opportunities and landing flashy, if not debilitating, blows all night.

"I thought he was going to come and brawl with me," Santa Cruz said. "I thought he was going to try and exchange punches with me. I thought he wasn’t going to move as much. So I said, 'I’m going to stay there with him, too,' but I never thought he was going to counterpunch that good or move that good."

Frampton earned decisive scores from two of the three ringside judges—capturing eight and nine rounds on their cards, respectively. He was ahead 5-1 and 4-2 on those cards through six rounds and won four of the final six rounds on both.

The third judge saw the fight dead even at six rounds apiece after scoring each half 3-3.

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"I was fighting his fight, and he was catching me with those shots," Santa Cruz said. "It was too late when I realized he was doing that. It was frustrating. He got me off my game, and I didn’t relax until I was in the later rounds. But you learn from your mistakes, and it had to happen to get me to wake up and get determined to do a lot better. That’s what happened to me."

Indeed, the former champion—who’d previously captured crowns at 118 and 122 pounds, too—is already plotting a course for what comes after he leaves Las Vegas a winner.

He plans to remain at featherweight and perhaps pursue unification with fellow title claimants Lee Selby, Gary Russell or Oscar Valdez, then climb to 130 pounds and beyond to create a compelling case for eventual Hall of Fame consideration.

But before all that, he’d aim to get the existing score settled once and for all.

"I still feel the same, like the loss is not there," Santa Cruz said. "I think I won. I’m still the same fighter. The only thing is that I don’t have that 0. He gave me that first loss, and I want to avenge that first loss and I want to give everything I’ve got and use everything in my hands to get that revenge and get the victory against Carl Frampton. Doing that will be like erasing that first loss.

"No matter how I beat him—if I beat him easy or not—if Carl Frampton wants a rematch, I’ll be happy to give him the rematch. If the fans want it, if it’s a great fight, I’m happy no matter what. Because he gave me the rematch, I’ll be happy to give him the rematch. As long as the promoters come up with an agreement and they make the fight over in Ireland or in California, wherever. No matter, as long as it happens, I’ll be happy to give it to him."