Leo Santa Cruz headed to New York for title defense versus Carl Frampton
New York’s large Irish American population and a desire to broaden Southland world champion Leo Santa Cruz’s popularity is motivating fight officials to place his July 30 title defense against unbeaten Carl Frampton of Northern Ireland at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Showtime is set to televise the bout, it was confirmed Monday.
The 27-year-old Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 knockouts) successfully defended his World Boxing Assn. “super world” featherweight title Feb. 27 at Honda Center against Spain’s Kiko Martinez, recording a fifth-round technical knockout.
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Santa Cruz captured the belt in August, defeating former three-division champion Abner Mares of Hawaiian Gardens.
The champion’s rise in popularity is to be showcased in the match against Frampton (22-0, 14 knockouts). He added the WBA “world” super-bantamweight belt to his existing International Boxing Federation belt, also on Feb. 27, by defeating England’s Scott Quigg by split decision in Manchester, England.
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