Shawn Porter impressed by Carl Frampton – but doesn’t think it will be enough

Carl Frampton [23(14)-0] made his way out to Las Vegas almost a full month ahead of his WBA featherweight title rematch with Leo Santa Cruz.

‘The Jackal’ locks horns with Santa Cruz again this Saturday (January 28th), but has been in Sin City since January 2nd.

During this time, the Belfast man has been based out of former two-weight world champion Roberto Guerrero’s house in the Vegas suburb of Blue Diamond, and has been training at the gym of another world champ.

The 29 year old has rounded off his camp at ‘Porter Hy-Performance,’ home of former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter.

The American has been impressed by Frampton too, and told Sky Sports that “he’s a good dude. Prior to him fighting Santa Cruz for the first time, I knew his name but didn’t know his style, or what he brought to the ring.”

“He’s got the skills, speed, power and a nice style. In my opinion, that’s rare out of the UK! You guys are usually really fast or really strong, but you don’t have anyone with the jazzy style that we have in the States. Man, that guy is pretty good.”

“My dad put it together for him to train at our facility, which was awesome. It’s been a pleasure having him so far. He’s going to be ready for his fight.”

However, Porter does not believe that Frampton will prevail in the rematch at the MGM Grand Garden Arena – indeed he does not feel that Frampton won the first fight last year.

“I thought Leo won the first one,” admitted Porter. “Based on the fact that I don’t think either will make big adjustments, I’ll go with Santa Cruz again. I’ll go with the home team. It’s probably going to be extremely narrow because both are fast, with high work-rate and energy.”

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Joe O’Neill and Gavan Casey look ahead to 2017 in episode 1 of The Irish Boxing Show