Leo Santa Cruz Caps off Another Memorable Fight Week in Las Vegas With Majority-decision Victory Over Carl Frampton in Their Rematch

Leo Santa Cruz regained his championship status this past Saturday night (Photo: Premier Boxing Champions)

By Chris Robinson

There was a great buzz throughout Las Vegas this past week, as the city hosted Leo Santa Cruz’s victory over Carl Frampton in their rematch bout inside of the MGM Grand Garden Arena. With over 10,000 people in attendance, Mexico’s Santa Cruz and Belfast, North Ireland’s Frampton gave the fans their money’s worth yet again.

In July, Santa Cruz was upset by Frampton over 12 rounds in Brooklyn via majority-decision, but he turned the tables this past Saturday night, boxing and brawling his way towards a majority-decision victory of his own. The crowd was full of supporters for each man and it was another memorable one for the books.

With the victory, Santa Cruz improves to 33-1-1 with 18 knockouts while Frampton suffers his first defeating, moving to 23-1 with 14 knockouts. At the post-fight press conference, there was hope and discussion for a possible rubber match between the two men, with Frampton hoping the third match of a potential trilogy between them could land in his native Belfast.

Santa Cruz seems open to the idea, but don’t be surprised to see Frampton and Santa Cuz move in separate directions, at least for the time being.

In the evening’s co-feature, Riverside’s Mikey Garcia stamped himself as a three-division champion by destroying previously unbeaten former titlist Dejan Zlaticanin in the third round. An uppercut from Garcia rocked his Montenegrin foe and a follow up right hand put Zlaticanin to sleep.

It was an epic victory for Garcia, who improves to 36-0 with 30 knockouts while Zlaticanin drops to 22-1 with 15 knockouts.

On the undercard, victories were scored by Ivan Redkach, Leduan Barthelemy, Josh Taylor, David Benavidez, Herbert Acevedo, Jerry Perez, and Antonio Santa Cruz.

Check below for a closer look at the post-fight press conference following Saturday’s card, as well as other memorable fight week videos.

Mikey Garcia again champion with explosive KO of Dejan Zlaticanin