IRISH Olympic star John Joe Nevin would love a future fight with former sparring partner Carl Frampton - and has backed ‘the Jackal’ to beat Leo Santa Cruz in New York on July 30.
The 27-year-old has endured a frustrating time in the paid ranks since winning a silver medal at the London 2012 Games, fighting just seven times since turning pro in 2014. However, Philadelphia-based Nevin is confident his career is about to explode into life and has admitted an all-Irish showdown with Tigers Bay’s Frampton tops his list of potential future fights.
‘The Jackal’ has moved up from super-bantamweight to featherweight to take on Los Angeles-based Mexican Santa Cruz, while Nevin has campaigned mostly at super-featherweight during his short pro career. He knows he has plenty of ground to make up on Frampton, who is preparing for his 23rd fight, but Nevin believes it is a match-up that could capture the public imagination.
“A very good friend of mine, he’s a world champion, he’s from Belfast,” said the Mullingar native when asked what opponent would be his dream fight.
“We used to have good spars and he gave me a good write-up in The Irish News when he went pro - he said he went pro because of John Joe Nevin. Carl’s the one I’d love to box. I won’t say I’d beat him, but we had some tremendous spars.”
And despite the bookmakers favouring Santa Cruz to edge Frampton at the Barclays Centre, Nevin believes the Belfast man has the tools to spring an upset: “I think he can - and I think it mightn’t go the distance either,” he said.
“Santa Cruz thinks he can walk through Carl, but I think Carl can get him early. That power will come up. Carl has tremendous power, take it from me and when he gets in the ring with Santa Cruz, he’s going to feel that.”
Another man who is confident Frampton’s power will travel up a weight division is former bantamweight world champion Wayne McCullough. And the ‘Pocket Rocket’ believes Frampton’s footwork could be key to taking the WBA title.
He said: “If I was training Carl, I would tell him to make angles and jab to the body and head and don’t move backwards, just move from side-to-side and control the centre of the ring. Hopefully, they’ve worked that out.”
