By Lyle Fitzsimmons

There were still six rounds to go Saturday night.

But the fighters, the handlers, the fans and the Showtime broadcast crew knew what was up.

It was at that halfway moment – as Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton walked back to their respective corners at the MGM Grand – that blow-by-blow man Mauro Ranallo first suggested that the two featherweights were “destined to be forever linked.”

The California-based Mexican and the globe-trotting Northern Irishman had already fought 12 rounds together last summer in New York, and the further along they got this time around in Las Vegas the more likely it looked that a third match would be needed to settle things.

Indeed, images of a classic fight series matching Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera – of which only the second took place at 126 pounds – were called up by the time Saturday’s 11th round began, and Ranallo’s colleague, Paulie Malignaggi, greeted the final bell’s arrival with the initial invitation.

“Trilogy anyone?” he said.

Ranallo quickly responded, “Count me in.”

A few minutes later, everyone else was on board, too.

The official announcement from Jimmy Lennon Jr. that Santa Cruz had turned the tables and won a majority decision of his own against Frampton – duplicating the verdict Frampton had escaped with last time around – made it everything but mandatory that the specs of a third fight be quickly agreed upon.

Santa Cruz suggested to me during the fight-week run-up that he’d be happy to re-engage if he won back the WBA featherweight title belt that Frampton captured, and both he and Frampton green-lighted the idea during post-fight chats with Jim Gray.

“Of course, I would be happy to give him the third fight,” the new champion said, and he was echoed by the beaten man, who floated the idea that a trip to Europe was in order after two fights stateside.

“It was a very good fight, but I feel like I can perform slightly better,” Frampton said. “We have to do it again. He said the third time he’d come to Belfast. I hope he does.”

Speaking for the collective boxing public, so do I.

boxing

As it was with Morales and Barrera from 122 to 130, Tarver and Jones at 175 and Holyfield and Bowe at heavyweight, the style mixture concocted by Santa Cruz and Frampton is so strategically compelling – and at times scintillatingly violent – that it’s impossible to imagine it leaving a poor taste.

Thanks in large part to the role reversal Santa Cruz was able to pull off on Saturday.

Frampton had been the patient and speedy counterpuncher in the first fight, prompting his taller, slower foe to lunge in and leave himself open for flashy and occasionally damaging replies.

In the rematch, though, Santa Cruz forced himself to stay disciplined and patient while fighting off his back foot, establishing the jab from the outset and never letting Frampton establish a consistent path to offense.

It wasn’t easy to stay on task, he told Gray, but it was worth it.

“It was very tough,” Santa Cruz said.

“My head was telling me to go forward. My corner was telling me to box. That’s what I did.”

The beaten man conceded to the turned tables in the aftermath, labeling Santa Cruz as “clever” and suggesting that “the brawler” had out-boxed “the boxer.” Showtime scorer Steve Farhood went one better on the praise meter, claiming the winner had fought “perhaps as brilliantly” as he ever had.

Of course, Frampton obvious skill set and intermittent successes on Saturday are enough to make a case he could readjust for a third fight, and it’d be plenty fascinating to see which version of Santa Cruz – or perhaps an entirely new third persona – would present itself if the two squared off again.

The added dynamic of a frenzied pro-Frampton home crowd would amp up the drama as well, and it’s no stretch to suggest a trilogy match would make a short list of contenders for 2017’s best fight. And while there are admittedly plenty of other viable opponents for either man in the weight class, it’d be a shame to see either man take on new business until this amiable competitive dispute is settled.

So long as boxing itself doesn’t stand in the way, we’re all in for a special treat.

* * * * * * * * * *

This week’s title-fight schedule:

SATURDAY

Vacant IBO light flyweight title -- Kempton Park, South Africa

Hekkie Budler (No. 6 IBO/No. 4 IWBR) vs. Joey Canoy (Unranked IBO/Unranked IWBR)

Budler (30-2, 9 KO): Fourteenth title fight (11-2); Held titles at 105 (IBO/WBA) and 108 pounds (IBO)

Canoy (12-2-1, 6 KO): First title fight; First fight outside the Philippines

Fitzbitz says: Budler was riding a two-title wave less than a year ago, and he gets a chance here to regain championship status against a foe who probably doesn’t warrant the marquee spot. Budler in 8

IBO super middleweight title -- London, United Kingdom

Renold Quinlan (champion/No. 30 IWBR) vs. Chris Eubank Jr. (Unranked IBO/No. 18 IWBR)

Quinlan (11-1, 7 KO): First title defense; Four straight wins by KO (15 total rounds)

Eubank (23-1, 18 KO): First title fight; Five straight KO wins since lone career loss (35 total rounds)

Fitzbitz says: Quinlan was an underdog last time out and emerged with a KO win against a high-profile foe. Eubank seems too good for it to happen again, but it wouldn’t be shocking. Eubank by decision

 

Last week's picks: 3-2 (WIN: Menayothin, Garcia, Ancajas; LOSS: Frampton, Vargas)

2017 picks record: 8-2 (80.0 percent)

Overall picks record: 831-276 (75.0 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.