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Frampton: Leo Santa Cruz is like Barry

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Carl Frampton sees many similarities between Leo Santa Cruz and someone very close to home, his manager Barry McGuigan

And it’s not just the 1980s moustache sported by Santa Cruz that Frampton is referring to.

‘The Jackal’ believes that the Mexican-American is “the closest I’ll ever get to facing someone like Barry.”

Writing in his weekly Belfast Telegraph column, Frampton noted how “Barry was always on the front foot, bringing an amazing amount of pressure and Santa Cruz is the same — he comes forward looking to dominate with his aggression, throwing lots of punches.”

“The dimensions are different, Santa Cruz is taller though Barry had a very long reach and Barry was a harder puncher but the pressure is similar.”

El Terremoto currently holds the WBA 126lb belt that once belonged to McGuigan, something which isn’t lost on Frampton who commented that “now I have the chance to win back the belt that Barry lost 30 years ago which would be very nice.

Frampton is hoping for a career-defining fight in New York on Saturday night against the three-weight World champ, and admits that he partly owes the opportunity to his mentor, explaining how “the influence of Barry on my career cannot be overstated, he has been there every step of the way fighting my corner — not backing down when others were wanting to dictate how my career would go and he always believed that one day I would be at this point of my career, in a super-fight.”

Read Frampton’s full column here

Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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