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Leo Santa Cruz the sole goal for Carl Frampton coach Jamie Moore


Should Carl Frampton defeat Nonito Donaire on April 21st, there is only one name that coach Jamie Moore will want to discuss – Leo Santa Cruz.

The Belfast featherweight fights four-weight champion Donaire at the SSE Odyssey Arena and new trainer Moore then wants to go after Leo Santa Cruz – seemingly at the expense of a Windsor Park date.

Promoter Frank Warren had promised that, if Frampton manages to overcome the ‘biggest name ever to come to Belfast’ and has his hand raised next month, a Summer date in Windsor Park awaits the popular talent.

It was believed the winner of Lee Selby and Josh Warrington’s May IBF featherweight World title fight was the most likely opponent – however, Warren has recently cooled this talk.

Regardless, Moore wants Frampton to have a rubber match with WBA featherweight champ Santa Cruz next.

With the Mexican-American defending his belt against Abner Mares on June 9th, this fight would most likely have to take place in Autumn rather than the mooted August Windsor date – as well as having to be hosted in America.

Moore outlined to OnTheRopesBoxing how “the division is stacked and there’s so many fighters that we could potentially pair him against at Windsor Park or before the end of the year. But, I’d rather not talk about those fights until there’s absolutely no chance that he can fight Santa Cruz because I know how much he wants that third fight and I know how much Frank Warren wants to make that fight for him.”

The former Irish, British, Commonwealth, and European light middleweight champ does not even want to consider other options such as the Selby-Warrington winner unless a Santa Cruz fight is categorically taken off the table.

Moore explained how “I don’t think there’s any point in putting in the effort to potentially match him up with other people until we have explored every avenue possible to try to make that fight because at the end of the day, they had two fights and they each won one.”

“The boxing world, the crowd, Carl and Santa Cruz all want the fight. If we start looking at other options, that sends Santa Cruz a message that we’re not really that serious about it. If the fight can’t happen for whatever reason, then we’re going to explore other avenues, but the first priority has to be Santa Cruz.”

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