Carl Frampton To Fight Leo Santa Cruz For WBA Featherweight Title

 

Carl Frampton will move up a weight division to fight Leo Santa Cruz for the WBA featherweight title in New York this summer. Frampton got the better of Scott Quigg in February with a points victory to add the WBA super-bantamweight belt to his IBF title. After the bout, Mancunian Quigg needed an operation to fix a broken jaw.

Northern Irishman Frampton has since been stripped of his title by the WBA for failing to agree to a first defence against Guillermo Rigondeaux, while he has also been ordered to fulfill an IBF mandatory defence against Shingo Wake.

Frampton suggested after the Quigg fight that he would seek to step up to featherweight for a big fight against either IBF champion Lee Selby or WBA holder Santa Cruz. He will face the latter on a date to be confirmed next week, according to promoter Barry McGuigan.

Frampton, who received an MBE from the Duke of Cambridge last month, has a 22-0 career record, with Santa Cruz having drawn one of his 33.