In the post Mayweather vs Pacquiao era of boxing, where the sport is defined by outsiders as boring, outdated, and dying, Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz are aiming to make boxing great again. As boxing insiders know, both men fight to the brink of death.
The two could not come from more different worlds. On paper it is, as the famous Harvard sociologist Samuel Huntington would call it, a clash of cultures. Frampton, hails from the working class area Protestant of Tiger?s Bay in Belfast. Santa Cruz is a classic East Los Angeles Mexican fighter. White vs Brown. Protestant vs Catholic. Yet, both men, who have genuine respect and zero animosity for each other, are united by a life of immense adversity, existential suffering, and struggle. If he were alive, Huntington would see his white supremacist theory is put on its head.
Tiger?s Bay was a center of the Catholic and Protestant violence that plagued Frampton?s youth. Growing up, a young Frampton would have been tempted to join violent British loyalist groups, and yet ?The Jackal? decided to channel the violent energy of 1990s Belfast into boxing.
Frampton?s entry into boxing was a complete rejection of the sectarian violence that plagued Belfast. So profound was Frampton?s indifference to the religious tensions that divided his existence that Frampton, a Protestant, fell in love and married his Catholic wife, Christine. Frampton is a symbol of peace, a transcendent figure, and an emerging superstar in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Such is the power of boxing.
Leo Santa Cruz, born in Michoacan, Mexico, moved at a young age to the United States like many Mexican families do in search for a better life. The Santa Cruz family settled in the gang riddled streets of 1990s Compton, California, made famous by the classic gangster rap album ?Straight Outta Compton? by N.W.A. Four sons, husband and wife lived in a one bedroom apartment.
Leo once told The Huffington Post, ?When I was small there were a lot of shootings and a lot of gangs. I remember not having enough to eat and praying that my trainer would bring us something to eat.? Jose, Leo?s father and trainer worked washing dishes and put food on the table and pay rent for six family members. And it is out of this desperation and hunger that Leo Santa Cruz, a former three time world champion, holder of the American dream meets Carl Frampton in Las Vegas tomorrow for the Featherweight Championship of the world.
