Frampton: Fighting in America will be different this time

Ahead of his WBA featherweight title fight with Leo Santa Cruz, Carl Frampton is aiming to rectify the errors that plagued the lead-up to his last fight in America.

Last July Frampton took on unheralded Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Jr in El Paso and was shocking dropped twice in the first round, before recovering to score a wide points victory.

Frampton flew out from Dublin yesterday for the July 30th bout at the Barclays Centre in New York – the first of many differences between the upcoming clash and his previous Stateside scrap.

‘The Jackal’ explained to ESPN that “I was only out for eight days before the last fight [v Gonzalez Jr] but I’m going out sooner for this one.”

“Things were wrong but this time we will be out for four weeks before and I’m going into the fight as the underdog and will be doing things different.”

A soft canvas (which in Texas came at the request of headliner Julio Cesar Chavez Jr) which Frampton describes as “like a mattress,” wont be an issue for the former unified super bantamweight champ who admits that “I’ve learned from those mistakes and I won’t let that happen again.”

Weight-making was another problem in Texas, and one would assume that the move 4lbs north to featherweight will help this, however Frampton explained that the change was “more to do with creating a bit of a legacy for myself, something to be remembered for, by becoming a two-weight world champion.”

“It’s more comfortable for me to make featherweight, it wasn’t easy to make super-bantam and I struggled when I fought in America a year, ago but then against Quigg it was probably one of the easiest I’ve made the weight in a while.”

The atmosphere in New York, headling the biggest PBC show of the Summer, is also a stark contrast to an afternoon matinee show in Texas in front of a half-filled Don Haskins Centre.

Frampton recalls that “there was a wee bit of a relaxed atmosphere before I fought Gonzalez. I thought it was going to be easy, the heat wasn’t great either and I boxed in the afternoon so there was less time to recover from making the weight, which I found hard to do.”

“Everything was just too laid back before I fought Gonzalez, I took it for granted a bit. Being in that mindset didn’t do making the weight any favours.”