“Just was not my night”, said Crespo who took the fight on a one week notice.
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“I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet. that’s going to be a fight that defines part of my career”, he added. It feels a bit like destiny for me.
Frampton previously held the IBF and WBA super-bantamweight titles. “It was a great performance and it didn’t get the build-up or the credit it deserves”.
“I wanted to be in a fight people would remember”, said Frampton, having made good on his pre-fight promise to give fans a “shock”.
And while he admits the bright lights of the Big Apple are a major draw, he pledged to remain true to his roots by continuing to compete regularly in his native Ulster. This is a great achievement for Carl and for Northern Ireland. “He’s an unbelievable fight but I’m being honest – there’s no money in the fight”. “That’s it”, he said.
The fight was rated the best so far this year by 68 per cent of fans in America, ahead of Keith Thurman’s WBA welterweight win against Shawn Porter. It felt really good getting back to do what I love most.
It was a night that will never be forgotten for a number of reasons and Frampton proved he had the heart as well as the skill to dethrone a three-weight champion and as tough a Mexican as they come.
The fight was seen as a possible candidate for Fight of the Year. “I had him hurt and I said to (referee Arthur Mercante), ‘You better not let him go.’ I knew I had him beat”. I respect him a hell of a lot – and a hell of a lot more after that fight.
But that crushing left with less than a minute left in the second stanza was the fight’s defining moment, Santa Cruz staggering back on his heels, only the ropes saving him from being downed for the first time in seven years. That’s a fight that interest me.
The age-old saying in boxing dictates that “styles make fights”, and the matchup between the spindly Santa Cruz and the shorter, counter-punching Frampton is likely to produce blistering action. “It was sensational. Frampton fought a brilliant fight”.
“I did miss it, but in the time off I regained that fire”, Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs) said.
“Tyson Fury? Is he Irish or English or what?”
Cruz has already voiced his desire to face Frampton for a second time but the Belfast-born fighter is yet to decide who his next fight will be against. He would also go down twice again right in round round five, though quickly got back up after the first one.
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Said Santa Cruz: “We’ll get the rematch and we’ll win, and [then this] loss will mean nothing”. Where the rematch will take place I have no idea but the fight is too big for the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.
