Photo by: Naoki Fukuda

On a sweltering day in which the temperatures hovered near the 90s, Carl Frampton was dressed in a snug suit-vest, skin-tight long-sleeve shirt, slacks and a red tie. It was an ensemble that demanded an air-conditioned room instead of a sweaty gym. Somehow, the boxer from Belfast managed to smile through a parade of interviews and photo shoots.

Asked how he was doing, Frampton smiled and pulled up his vest to reveal a sweat-soaked undershirt. “It’s hot,” the former unified junior featherweight champion said with a laugh.

Outside of that, Frampton barely seemed to be sweating his upcoming fight with 126-pound titleholder Leo Santa Cruz on July 30 at Barclays Center on Showtime (9 p.m. ET). Though he’s rising in weight and is facing one of the top fighters of the division, Frampton (22-0, 14 knockouts) exuded confidence bordering on arrogance. He predicted he wouldn’t just beat Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) but that his power would be too much for him.

“He’s never lost, never been stopped,” Frampton told RingTV.com on Thursday at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. “He’s never been (hurt). But I don’t believe he’s been hit by someone who can punch as hard as me yet. And we’re going to see. That’s the plan. The main thing is to win but I believe I’ve got the power to knock him out.”

The 5-5 spark plug hopes to put on a better performance than he did the first time he fought in the states when he was dropped twice in the first round and had to rally against Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. last year in El Paso, Texas. Frampton says he saw Santa Cruz ringside for that fight and remembers the reaction of the Californian.

“He was smiling and smirking and I think he may think this is an easy fight,” Frampton said. “But once I hit him hard in the first round he’s going to realize it’s not going to be easy. He’s a very good fighter but I believe I’m as good if not better than him.” He added, “I’m going to bring some fire with me up the weight and I think Santa Cruz is going to feel it.”

Frampton expects around 1,500 fans to travel from Belfast and the United Kingdom to the fight, including former world No. 1 golfer Rory McIlroy; Frampton says McIlroy, who is from Northern Ireland, will be in for a golf tournament the week of the fight. The PGA Championship runs July 28-31 in Springfield, New Jersey. “I suppose it depends how he’s doing in the tournament,” Frampton said. “If he’s leading, he may not want a night out on the town Saturday before the final day but who knows? I would love him to get here. I think he’ll show up.”

Frampton arrived in New York on Monday, nearly a full month before his bout to get acclimated. Frampton traveled to Texas just a week before the fight with Gonzalez and won’t make the same mistake twice.

Frampton won a split decision against Scott Quigg to unify the IBF and WBA junior featherweight titles in February. He was stripped of his WBA title in April after the WBA ordered Frampton to face the Cuban stylist Guillermo Rigondeaux and it became clear Frampton had no intention of doing so. Frampton said his decision to face Santa Cruz rather than Rigondeaux was simple economics. “The money to fight Santa Cruz is much more than the money to face Rigondeaux,” he said. “I get three, four times the money to fight Santa Cruz.”

If Frampton wins the WBA title on July 30, he said a bout with IBF featherweight titleholder and Welshman Lee Selby would be appealing. Both are signed with Al Haymon and making the fight wouldn’t be hard, he said. If the fight takes place, Frampton said it should be in his hometown of Belfast at the Windsor Park soccer stadium “because I believe I’m a bigger draw than him and we could sell out maybe 20,000 in Windsor Park.”

The plan is for Frampton to fight again before the end of the year back home before returning to the states, according to his promoter Barry McGuigan, who once captured the WBA featherweight strap a little over 30 years ago and was a hero in his native Clones, Ireland. No matter what happens on July 30, he’s staying at featherweight. “There are lots of good fights here,” McGuigan said. “The featherweight division is red hot at the moment.”

Mitch Abramson is a former reporter for the New York Daily News and can be reached on Twitter at: @Mabramson13.