WILL Leo Santa Cruz take a different approach in his rematch with Carl Frampton on January 28? With his father recovering from cancer and back training him, he indicated he would do something new when trying to reclaim the WBA featherweight title from Frampton. “The fans love for a fighter to go toe to toe in a fight. And that’s why I always try, that’s why people say I only fight one way,” he said. “But the reality is that I could fight any way. I could adopt any way. I could box. I could move. But the truth is I don’t really like moving because I like entertaining the fans because they go out there to see the great fights, wars, toe to toe.
“But then they tell me that at the end of the day, you have to be smart. You have to fight for yourself and go out there and win. And I could do that.
“For this fight, I’m going to try to do that. I’m going to go out there and try to make it for me to come up with the big dream victory. And I’m going to go out there and everybody is going to be surprised at what I could do.”
Frampton though wasn’t buying his argument. “I don’t think he’s going to try to box at all. I think he’s just going to try and put even more pressure on, him to come on more relentless than he was the last time,” Carl said. “I think that’s their game plan and I think he won’t try to box me. I think that, I honestly think that that’s a mistake from their team because it makes the fight much easier for me.”
Frampton has been receiving praise and accolades since his victory over the Mexican. “I perform best under pressure. And what these awards are doing is simply filing your head full of confidence. I want to go out and prove that these awards are justified, that I deserved to be the Fighter of the Year last year,” he said.
Carl’s confidence is renewed. “Once you do it once, you have it in your head you can do it again. And there are a few adjustments that I want to make in this fight to make things a little bit easier for myself. I’ve been trying different things out in the gym but I’m prepared for whatever Leo has to throw at me. I understand this is going to be a difficult fight,” Frampton said. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, really. If I’m being completely honest with you, I don’t think I could have fought at that pace at 122. Fighting at 122 was taking something from my performance.
“I just felt like a better man at featherweight. So it was a bit of a risk for me to fight so hard from the start but I did and I was still punching at the end of the fight and I feel like the last round was close but I feel like I may have nicked the last round.
“I’m expecting a tough fight. He went to the body a lot the last time also. Though I believe I’ll have an answer for anything that he shows up with.”
