Leo Santa Cruz set to face Carl Frampton in 'late summer'

Another intriguing part of today's big announcement from Showtime Sports concerns a "late summer" target date for a fight between WBA featherweight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz and current WBA and IBF super bantamweight titleholder Carl Frampton, with it apparently agreed between the camps that Frampton will move up in weight for the bout.

Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KO) is coming off of a one-sided but exciting win over Kiko Martinez on February 27, the same day that Frampton (22-0, 14 KO) retained his IBF belt and added the WBA title with a tepid victory over Scott Quigg in Manchester.

There was much discussion even before the fight that the two would be meeting next, as they'd both discussed that in the build-up to their February bouts. But Frampton said after beating Quigg that he could also remain at super bantamweight, and the WBA did order a mandatory defense against Guillermo Rigondeaux, their "champion in recess," or however they termed it. Instead, Frampton is going up to 126 for the fight with Santa Cruz.

No firm date is set yet, and obviously that also means no venue or location for the fight. It's also not yet known what this means for Frampton's titles at 122 pounds, as he could hold on to them until after the fight with Santa Cruz actually happens, and make up his mind from there.