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 momentas Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton walked back to their respective corners at the MGM Grandthat 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 Brooklyn, 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 Barreraof which only the second bout took place at 126 poundswere invoked by the time Saturday's 11th round began, and Ranallo's cohort, Paulie Malignaggi, greeted the final bell's arrival with an 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 Framptonduplicating the verdict Frampton had escaped with last time aroundmade it everything but mandatory that the specs of a third fight be quickly agreed upon.Santa Cruz suggested 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 had 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 we.As it was with Morales and Barrera from 122 to 130, Antonio Tarver and Roy Jones Jr. at 175 and Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe at heavyweight, the style mixture concocted by Santa Cruz and Frampton is so strategically compellingand at times compellingly violentthat it's impossible to imagine it leaving a poor taste.A thinking man's ArturoGatti vs.Micky Ward, if you will.And it was 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 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 outboxed "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.That's no small task considering he'd already been a three-division champion.Of course, Frampton's obvious skill set and intermittent successes on Saturday are enough to make a case he, too, could readjust for a third fight, and it'd be plenty fascinating to see which version of Santa Cruzor perhaps an entirely new third personawould present itself if the two square 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 take on new business until this amiable competitive dispute is settled.Provided that boxing itself doesn't stand in the way, we're all in for a special treat.
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