By Dan Ambrose: In a surprising move, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya has reportedly sold the contract for Golden Boy fighter WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (29-0-1, 17 KOs) to adviser Al Haymon for an undisclosed amount of money, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
Santa Cruz, 26, has a large fan base in the United States, and he was still under contract until 2016. Rafael is saying that De La Hoya sold the contract because he was frustrated at being unable to set Santa Cruz up with big names like WBA/WBO 122 pound champion Guillermo Rigondeaux due to Haymon, who was already Santa Cruz’s adviser, blocking the fights.
Santa Cruz has been matched up in mismatches recently against poor opposition, and De La Hoya wanted to see him fight the 1st tier opposition instead of guys that were clearly 2nd tier fighters.
“Oscar has been telling everybody possible that he wants Leo to fight Rigondeaux,” an unnamed source told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “Clearly, that’s not on the agenda for Al [Haymon] and Leo [Santa Cruz]. Al wouldn’t make the fight. Oscar wants to work with fighters and managers who want to put the best against the best and make the kind of fights that the fans want to see.”
With Haymon now in control of Santa Cruz, he could have him move up to featherweight later this year to match him up against the winner of the Jhonny Gonzalez vs. Gary Russell Jr fight. Abner Mares may fight the winner of the Gonzalez-Russell Jr fight, but then Santa Cruz would fight the winner of that fight.
Rigondeaux will likely be someone that Santa Cruz is steered around. It would be a smart move for Haymon to keep Santa Cruz far away from fighting the likes of Rigondeaux or Vasyl Lomachenko, because those guys are likely too good for him. Nicholas Walters is also a fighter that would give Santa Cruz huge problems. But Walters and Lomachenko are both with Top Rank, so that pretty much keeps them off limits for a fight against Santa Cruz due to Haymon not working with Arum. We’re talking about boxing becoming like leagues with Haymon’s fighters facing their guys, and Top Rank fighting their people and occasionally other fighters promoted by the likes of Banner Promotions.
It’s good that Santa Cruz will eventually start fighting better opposition than the guys he’s been fighting lately. But it’s bad that he’s going to likely be limited to fighting a certain amount of guys. If he’s not going to fight Lomachenko, Walters, Nonito Donaire, Rigondeaux or Evgeny Gradovich, then it’s hard to get really excited about him. He’s going to be limited in the type of opponents he faces, and even if he beats the winner of the Mares, Gonzalez and Russell Jr fights, it’s still not going to tell you much about him. Unless Santa Cruz can beat Donaire, Walters, Rigondeaux, Carl Frampton, Scott Quigg and Lomachenko, all you can say about him is that he’s just another paper champion among the many belt holders in the 122 and 126 pound divisions. It’s just confusing for the average boxing fan, and impossible for them to say much about Santa Cruz other than his fighting style is exciting.
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