Saturday night at the Barclays Center, WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) takes on Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) live on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET. Santa Cruz held world titles at bantamweight and junior featherweight before winning the WBA vacant title over longtime rival Abner Mares last August. Frampton, the Northern Ireland native, is coming off the biggest win of his career -- he unified the junior featherweight titles via split decision over England's Scott Quigg in February.
Let's take a look at where the money has gone so far, along with opinions from boxing experts and trainers, and we'll ultimately end up at my pick as to who will lay claim to the mantle of best featherweight in the world.
Jeff Sherman, assistant sportsbook manager at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, opened the fight with