Frampton hits back at Bunce’s “disrespectful” comments
Carl Frampton [23(14)-1(0)] has hit back at Steve Bunce following the boxing pundit’s suggestion last week that ‘The Jackal’ and his team had been disrespectful to Leo Santa Cruz in the build up to their rematch last month.
The Mexican-American notably reduced his output and boxed well behind the jab to reclaim the WBA featherweight titles in Sin City via majority decision.
Frampton took issue with Bunce’s comments, which came on BBC Radio 5, and would voice his displeasure on social media before fully addressing the situation in his weekly column for the Sunday Life.
The Belfast man wrote that “I was very annoyed this week to hear high profile boxing pundit Steve Bunce say that I hadn’t shown Leo Santa Cruz respect ahead of our second fight which was totally not the case.”
“Anybody listening to me leading up to the fight in Vegas would know that I totally resected Leo, and always have done, as a fighter. the point is that as a team we didn’t expect Leo to switch his tactics the way he did because he hadn’t shown that in his previous 34 fights.”
Frampton reasoned that “he [Santa Cruz] showed glimpses of it in a fight with Abner Mares, but that was it and every team has to have a game plan going into the fight and credit to Leo’s people, they got it right.”
The Tigers Bay fan favourite also disputed the English pundit’s claim that a major factor in the loss at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was the presence of Santa Cruz’s father and coach José in his son’s corner – something which Bunce argued did not happen in their first meeting last Summer in New York. Frampton, correctly, pointed out that “he [Bunce] was also wrong saying that Leo’s dad was not in the corner in the first fight. He was clearly there with his Stetson hat on giving instructions.”
“I like Bunce but he likes the sound of his voice more than he likes me.”
