By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (29-0-1, 17 KOs) has a high visibility spot on this Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 26-year-old Santa Cruz will be fighting in the co-feature bout against in what appears to be an over-matched Jose Cayetano (17-3, 8 KOs) in a 10 round bout in the 126 pound [featherweight] division. This is what you would call a “showcase” bout for Santa Cruz.
In other words, he’s facing a guy that has no chance of winning and who is merely been selected for him to look against. It’s a showcase fight. The odds of Santa Cruz failing to look good in this fight are very, very low, because Cayetano has been picked out carefully and he’s the perfect little slugger that Santa Cruz tends to look good against.
Santa Cruz is hoping that with his performance against the little known Cayetano, he’ll be able to win over a lot of new fans. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but Santa Cruz has clearly been put in the best possible position for him to shine in this fight due to Cayetano being a 2nd tier fighter and not ranked in the top 15 at 122.
“I know that everybody is here for Mayweather and Pacquiao but there will still be millions seeing me fight and I want to show them who Leo Santa Cruz is so that I can get a lot more fans,” Santa Cruz said via Fight News. “I’m still young and there are many more fights to come. The fights the fans want, we’re going to give it to them. I know those fights are going to happen. I want to look spectacular and I want to get Cayetano out of there really fast.”
Now that Santa Cruz has moved up to the featherweight division, the fighters that boxing fans want to see Santa Cruz are guys like WBO champion Vasyl Lomachenko, WBA champ Nicholas Walters, Nonito Donaire, IBF champion Evgeny Gradovich, Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares. Unfortunately, Santa Cruz will likely never face Lomachenko, Donaire or Gradovich due to those guys being with Top Rank and Santa Cruz with adviser Al Haymon.
I don’t know how much interest there will be in a Santa Cruz vs. Mares fight because Mares still hasn’t come back from his disappointing 1st round knockout loss to Jhonny Gonzalez from 2013. It’s been two years since then and Mares still hasn’t faced a live body since that fight. Two years is a long time for a fighter to throw away with their career by facing stiffs, especially when they’re in their prime. I don’t know if a lot of boxing fans will make a big deal out of the Santa Cruz – Mares fight because both guys have done nothing with their careers in the last couple of years. Santa Cruz has had three straight mismatches against Cristian Mijares, Manuel Roman and Jesus Ruiz. Santa Cruz’s fight against Cayetano on Saturday will be his fourth straight mismatch.
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