FIGHT fans always want a tear-up, but friends and family never like to see fighters take unnecessary punishment in the ring.
As his coach and close friend, Shane McGuigan wasn’t best pleased with Carl Frampton last Saturday night, when ‘the Jackal’ got involved into a toe-to-toe battle with Leo Santa Cruz and fought, by his own admission, with his heart instead of his head.
Frampton got the job done though, winning a majority decision after 12 absorbing rounds of genuine championship boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn: “The fact is that you can’t box and move and run away from Santa Cruz for 12 rounds,” said coach McGuigan.
“He had to fight him in spurts, but he fought him far too early in my honest opinion - in the second or third round, he started trading with him. To be honest, it stamped his authority and he hit Santa Cruz hard early.
“Santa Cruz has never fought like that, he knew he was behind, but he didn’t go and get Carl, he tried to hit him from distance and the reason for that is that it doubles the impact when you’re coming in. Every time he was coming in, he was getting nailed. He wanted to make it an easy fight and Carl was the one who was forcing the fight.”
Frampton had predicted an early power shot would pave the way to victory for him and he landed a second round left hook that sent Santa Cruz staggering back into the ropes: “The whole plan was to hit him hard early and get his respect and we got his respect,” he said.
McGuigan had some harsh words for Frampton in the middle rounds, when Santa Cruz threatened to seize the initiative away from him: “You have fight Santa Cruz in the centre of the ring,” he explained.
“Carl was covering too much distance, he was pulling out of shots… he wasn’t doing enough. He thought he was doing enough, but he just wasn’t and he was losing rounds by switching off. I was like ‘you have to stamp your authority, you have to take it to him and meet him with shots and, as soon as he started doing that, Santa Cruz started backing off.
“I told him to listen to the fans singing Danny Boy at one stage and said ‘if that’s not motivation for you, I don’t know what is - go out there and make us all proud’. The atmosphere was incredible - those people made some noise.
“I thought in the middle rounds, Carl mixed it and started loading up. The fact is that Leo throws lots of good shots rather than excellent shots - he tries to hit you with 10 good shots rather than two really crisp ones.
“Carl was loading up and Leo was out-working him on the inside sometimes. For me, it was all about phases, coming in and out and Carl could have made it so much easier for himself, but he’s here to entertain and that’s Frampton for you.”
After he was rocked in the second round, he wasn’t as eager to come forward - it was the same story with Kiko Martinez and Scott Quigg. Martinez got a rematch, Quigg didn’t and Santa Cruz is anxious to get another shot at Frampton.
“He can say ‘next time, I’m going to fight him a lot more, I’m gonna take it to him’, but he had his opportunity tonight and he didn’t take it,” he said.
“He tried to fight too much on the outside and he was losing it on the outside. I don’t believe the outcome would be different, I really don’t. If there’s a second fight, I don’t know if he’ll stop him, but he’ll beat him more convincingly than that.”
With talk of a rumble with Lee Selby (IBF champ) next, McGuigan added: “But we’ll see what’s on the table and what the fans want.
“I wouldn’t mind having a rematch. We could take it to Vegas, but let’s conquer this first - New York used to be the Mecca of boxing, let’s bring it back.”
The significance of Frampton winning the WBA belt - the title his father Barry had held three decades previously, before losing to Steve Cruz in Las Vegas - certainly wasn’t lost on McGuigan: “I’m 27 and that fight was before I was born. I watched the fight against Cruz - it was in July, in America for the same belt - it’s extremely special.
“I try not to get wrapped up in the situation, but it means so much. Everyone back home is glad to have that belt back.”
The London-based coach had two other winners last Saturday night - Conrad Cummings and Josh Taylor both had their hand raised on the Barclays Center bill: “What a fight Conrad had,” he said.
“We’re a team and I’m so proud of Conrad, he gets a lot of negative stick. He’s always up against it and people have always written him off, but you couldn’t ask to work with a nicer guy. I’ve seen him grow as a person and as a fighter since I’ve been working with him and I’m thrilled to see him showcase his skills like he did.”
