by David P. Greisman

Years ago, Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton were both junior featherweights. Santa Cruz had a world title. Frampton was pursuing a fight with him.

He didn’t get it until this past Saturday, with Santa Cruz now a featherweight titleholder and Frampton moving up to challenge for it.

Frampton won by majority decision against his toughest opponent yet, performing better — and taking shots better — than a year ago, when Frampton made his U.S. debut in a fight in Texas against Alejandro Gonzalez. Frampton was dropped twice in the first round, getting up and battling back to win.

“Leo Santa Cruz hit me with better shots than Alejandro hit me with,” Frampton said at the post-fight press conference Saturday night. “That [Gonzalez fight] was just me boiling myself down to 122 pounds. It was just having a negative affect on my performance. I finished stronger tonight. I think me fighting Leo Santa Cruz at 122 pounds, wouId I have had that in me? I don’t know. I would’ve tried my best. I think that getting down to that weight was killing me. In retrospect looking back, it was better for me to be up here at 126.”

Santa Cruz landed 255 punches on the night, according to CompuBox, including 191 power shots.

“He could punch a bit. When he hit me on the end of his shots, you could definitely feel it,” Frampton said. “I respected his punching power, but I knew that 126 was going to suit me better. People thought that it was going to be difficult for me to jump up against someone like Leo Santa Cruz. But I finished my amateur career as a featherweight. Leo started his professional career as a bantamweight.

“I believe that tonight I was a bigger man than him,” he said. “I believe I was stronger. I was able to push him back when I wanted to. I knew this was going to suit me. I was full of energy all week. It was pretty easy making the weight.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com