Leo Santa Cruz would consider retirement if he loses to Carl Frampton again
Leo Santa Cruz [32(18)-1(0)-1] admits that he would strongly consider retirement if he were to lose again to Carl Frampton [23(14)-0] in their rematch later this month.
Santa Cruz lost the WBA featherweight title, and his undefeated record, to ‘The Jackal’ last July in New York in a Fight of the Year contender. An immediate rematch was agreed and will take place under the neon lights in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday January 28th.
The proud Santa Cruz, who shares a great mutual respect with Frampton, has often spoke of how tough his initial loss to the Belfast man was – and believes that another loss to the same opponent could see him cut short his time in the sport.
The three-weight world champion told IFL TV how “I’m not even thinking about losing the fight because, if I lose this fight, I’ve even thought about retiring.”
Expanding on this thought, Santa Cruz described how “nobody wants to lose twice to the same guy. If you’ve lose to him you’re getting in your head ‘what else can you do know?’ So, I think, maybe retire. I know there’s a lot of great fights out there, but we have the pride, we want to be here, we want to be the best, and if we’ve already lost to the same guy twice, I think there’s nothing else to do here.”
“We want to go out there and get the win and get ourselves up there and have that mentality to continue fighting the best.”
Watch Leo Santa Cruz’s interview with IFL TV in full below:
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Joe O’Neill and Gavan Casey look ahead to 2017 in episode 1 of The Irish Boxing Show