On the eve of his bid for redemption, Leo Santa Cruz has insisted he is both starting from scratch and fighting to rescue his professional career.
The Mexican three-weight world champion faces Carl Frampton in a rematch of their classic encounter in Brooklyn last summer, a night when Santa Cruz tasted defeat for the first time in his career and lost his WBA featherweight championship.
As the friendly foes got ready to weigh in for the Las Vegas crowds at the MGM Grand late Friday afternoon local time, the challenger argued that it is he, and not the Belfast champion, who is the more focused.
"I am really motivated for this fight. I see this as my first world title. It’s like I haven’t won nothing and this is my first world title fight," said the 28-year-old Californian-based fighter, like Frampton expected to have no problems with the 126lb limit when they step on the scales.
"I know another loss against Carl Frampton, it could be the end of my career. Every fighter fights to be the best. I want to come out here and be the best.
"If Carl Frampton beats me, I think maybe, you know I don’t want to say it but maybe I’d retire. But I’ll come really prepared to get the win and will leave everything in the ring to get it."
"I'll try to hurt Frampton or try to finish the fight as soon as I can"
Always upbeat and genial, defeat in July nonetheless cut deep into Santa Cruz. He's determined to level the scores having immediately triggered the rematch clause in his contract with Frampton.
"This is my career. Once I get into the ring, there’s no respect or nothing," he said. "I'll try to hurt Frampton or try to finish the fight as soon as I can – the sooner the better because it makes it easier for me.
“I’ll be more aggressive, smarter and every punch will be thrown with determination to knock him out."
Santa Cruz was too aggressive first time round, throwing off a barely credible 1000+ shots in 36 frenetic meetings. Frampton was canny on the counter and caught him with the more powerful punches while staying out of trouble in front of a wild crowd.
The things you don't see pic.twitter.com/0d13AVjHCp
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) January 27, 2017
The vanquished Santa Cruz claimed afterwards that the Irish contingent had swayed the judges, something that left a slightly bitter taste between two camps who had been on particularly good terms. Six months on, he still stands by that.
“No I don’t regret [saying] that. If you are a judge and every time the other guy throws a punch and the crowd scream, they hear that and that plays into the decision," said Santa Cruz, with a similarly partisan crowd a distinct possibility as upwards of 5,000 Jackal fans cross the Atlantic to Las Vegas.
"That maybe made it better for Frampton, there were a lot of Irish fans there. When I threw and landed, the Mexican fans weren’t screaming so maybe that made the difference.
“But I take nothing away from him. He’s a great fighter and hopefully now I will get the win. I know there will be a lot of Irish people here again, but I think it will be 50-50. There will be a lot of Mexicans so we will both have fans.
“I want people to remember our fights. It’s what fighters dream of, people will still be talking about the rivalry 10 years into the future. I want a trilogy. Hopefully I will win the fight and then we can have another rematch. I want us to be mentioned with the great fights of the past.
“I totally respect him, he’s spoken no trash to me. He’s a family guy like me - we are doing all this for our families. When the bell rings that's all we think of."
Follow Carl Frampton v Leo Santa Cruz with our live blog on RTÉ.ie from 2am on Sunday January 29
