Undefeated Santa Cruz Faces Frampton July 30th
BROOKLYN (June 14, 2016) - Undefeated featherweight world champion Leo "El Terremoto" Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) and fellow unbeaten Irish star Carl "The Jackal" Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) will meet with a world title and two perfect records at stake on Saturday, July 30 in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions event from Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®telecast begins live on SHOWTIME® at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Santa Cruz and Frampton collide in a battle of world champions who mix dizzying speed with incredible output that produces exciting fight after exciting fight. This fight will be the fifth featherweight world title fight presented by SHOWTIME in 2016. Frampton, a unified world champion at 122 pounds, a weight class Santa Cruz previously held a title at, will move up a notch in weight and challenge at 126 pounds.
The popular Mexican-American Santa Cruz fights out of Los Angeles and won the 126-pound title in a "Fight of the Year" candidate against former three-division champ Abner Mares last August at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. It was just the third fight in the featherweight division for Santa Cruz, who has won belts at 118 and 122 pounds while earning a reputation as one of boxing's most active and exciting fighters. The 27-year-old also holds victories over Cristian Mijares and Eric Morel. He has competed in world title bouts in 11 of his last 13 fights since 2012. After stopping former world champion Kiko Martinez in the fifth round last Feb. 27, Santa Cruz makes his second world title defense in his East Coast debut.
After defeating rival Scott Quigg in their 122-pound unification bout last Feb. 27, Frampton will attempt to capture a world title in a second weight class. Fighting out of Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Irish national amateur champion in 2005 and 2009 expects to bring some of his rabid fans stateside come July 30. The 29-year-old became a world champion in 2014 when he defeated Kiko Martinez to earn a super bantamweight title. He made his U.S. debut in July 2015 when he defeated Alejandro "Cobrita" Gonzalez Jr. in Texas before unifying the title against Quigg.
