(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: 32-year-old former IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares (49-7-2, 24 KO’s) thinks his experience will be the telling factor tonight in his title challenge against the younger 25-year-old Leo Santa Cruz (26-0-1, 15 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mijares has a lot of confidence going into this fight, but not much to show for in terms of wins over high quality opposition.
In his last five fights, Mijares has beaten Jovanny Soto, Carlos Joan Gaspar Jacobo, lost to Victor Terrazas, beaten a well past his prime Rafael Marquez and Eusebio Osejo. Terrazas is the same guy that Santa Cruz ran over in 3 rounds last year in August in one of the easiest fights of his career. The fact that Santa Cruz was able to destroy a guy that beat Mijares suggests that tonight’s fight is going to be a mismatch. Mijares is too old and weak to beat Santa Cruz. Even if Mijares was still in the prime of his career, Santa Cruz would likely destroy him in 3-4 rounds.
“I totally feel like I’m catching Leo at the right time,” Mijares said. “He’s a great, young champion and I know this is going to be a difficult fight. But I have too much experience for him, too much overall speed. I think Leo found out in his last fight that he is vulnerable. I can see in his face, the look in his eyes, that he’s going to lose on Saturday. I am very confident.”
Santa Cruz beat Cesar Seda by a 12 round decision last December in a fight where Santa Cruz struggled with Seda’s hand speed and defensive skills. However, Seda wasn’t really fighting to win, and was mostly just trying not to get hit and land occasional pot shots. Mijares can’t do the same thing that Seda did because he’s not as fast or as powerful as him. These guys are two different fighters all together.
Mijares is a slick southpaw who does well against sluggers most of the time. He easily out-boxed a prime Jorge Arce in 2007 in winning a one-sided 12 round decision against him. Arce never fought Mijares again after the loss. However, Mijares couldn’t out-box Vic Darchinyan, who destroyed him in 9 rounds in 2008. Mijares was also beaten in back to back fights in 2009 by slugger Nehomar Cermeno. Last year, Victor Terrazas beat Mijares by a 12 round split decision.
Golden Boy Promotions should have found a better opponent for Santa Cruz to fight than Mijares, because this guy is all talk at this point in his career, and he’s too weak to be a factor at super bantamweight. Mijares needs to lose some of the flab around his midsection and move back down to the super flyweight division to see if he can get lucky against one of the champions in that weight class. I don’t think he can, because he’s too old at this point, and the division has improved considerably since the time where he briefly held titles in that division.
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