Carl Frampton flew to the U.S. on Monday insisting he will not make the same mistakes as his last fight in the States when he takes on Leo Santa Cruz in New York later this month.

Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) challenges Mexican Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) for his WBA world featherweight title at the Barclays Centre on July 30 in his first fight since stepping up from super-bantamweight.

The Northern Irishman, who out-pointed fellow Briton Scott Quigg in a WBA-IBF world title unification fight in February, was floored twice in the first round before recovering to win on points against unheralded Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. in El Paso, Texas, a year ago.

"It's more comfortable for me to make featherweight, it wasn't easy to make super-bantam and I struggled when I fought in America a year ago but then against Quigg it was probably one of the easiest I've made the weight in a while," Frampton told ESPN.

"So it's more to do with creating a bit of a legacy for myself, something to be remembered for, by becoming a two-weight world champion.

"There was a wee bit of a relaxed atmosphere before I fought Gonzalez. I thought it was going to be easy, the heat wasn't great either and I boxed in the afternoon so there was less time to recover from making the weight, which I found hard to do.

"The canvas was very soft, like a mattress, but I've learned from those mistakes and I won't let that happen again.

"I'm boxing on the east coast this time so it will be different and I was only out for eight days before the last fight but I'm going out sooner for this one.

"Everything was just too laid back before I fought Gonzalez, I took it for granted a bit. Being in that mindset didn't do making the weight any favours.

"I felt like I was constantly dehydrated and I kept gorging on water. Things were wrong but this time we will be out for four weeks before and I'm going into the fight as the underdog and will be doing things different."

Carl Frampton thought Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. would be 'easy' when they met in Texas last year. Esther Lin/CBS

Frampton, 29, is one of Northern Ireland's biggest sports stars along with golfer Rory McIlroy and the national football team which has just been in action at Euro 2016, but the former IBF-WBA super-bantamweight champion feels he has a point to prove to American fight fans after a disappointing US debut last year.

"I need to show the American crowd what I'm capable of," Frampton said.

"I'm better than that, I'm a better fighter than I looked in the first round when Gonzalez put me down twice. It was disastrous but I came back and boxed quite well after that and won on points comfortably.

"That was me at 70 percent and I really need to be at my best to beat Santa Cruz because he's the best fighter I've come up against."

Frampton and three-weight world champion Santa Cruz, 27, almost met at super-bantamweight and the Belfast boxer believes the champion's aggression will play into his hands.

"Leo punches a lot and is aggressive, he's a come forward fighter, and that will suit me," he said.

"He's had a couple of good wins at featherweight against Abner Mares and Kiko Martinez. Mares was a good win, but Mares' tactics were all wrong.

"He started fast and blew up after three rounds and wasn't the same after that. I won't be stupid enough to do that."