(Photo credit: Craig Bennett) By Dan Ambrose: Leo Santa Cruz (30-0-1, 17 KOs) believes his fight against former three division world champion Abner Mares (29-1-1, 15 KOs) next month on August 29th is a fight that the boxing public is demanding right now despite the fight being a non-title fight in a division that neither fighter appears to be equipped to compete in.
The division is just too good right now for the likes of Santa Cruz and Mares, and about the best the two fighters can hope for is a nice payday when they face each other at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
“The fans want it,” Santa Cruz said via the latimes.com about his fight against Mares. “We want to give the fans the fight they want. They want to see an action fight between two Mexicans. It’s going to be a great war.”
There’s no question it’s going to be a good fight between two contenders, but it’s a little late in the game though for them to be fighting at featherweight. Santa Cruz should have moved up in weight to the featherweight division in 2013 before Gary Russell Jr. took over as the WBC champion, Vasyl Lomachenko became the WBO champ, and Lee Selby the IBF champion.
I don’t think Santa Cruz or Mares beats any of those guys. Their only chance of eventually winning a world title at featherweight is if they go after the flawed but very powerful WBA champion Jesus Andres Cuellar or the now vacant WBA Super World featherweight title that was recently stripped from Nicholas Walters after he failed to make weight for his fight against Miguel Marriaga.
“I respect that the fans view me as a great fighter and they want me to fight the best,” Santa Cruz said. “It’s why I have an advisor [Haymon]. I’m loyal. They put a fight in front of you for a reason. They tell me to fight [Mares], I say yeah. I’m not scared of no one.”
I don’t know that too many boxing fans see Santa Cruz as a great fighter. They see him as a good fighter, an untested fighter, but definitely not a great fighter. A lot of fans aren’t exactly happy with Santa Cruz right now because of the soft match-making that’s been done for him in the last year and a half.
Santa Cruz talked up fights against Guillermo Rigondeaux, Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton, and then turned around and fought these guys: Jose Cayetano, Jesus Ruiz, Manuel Roman, and Cristian Mijares. Santa Cruz’s last tough opponent was against Cesar Seda two years ago in 2013. Two years is a long, long time in boxing, and when you go two years in between facing quality opponents, a lot of boxing fans lose interest in you, which is what’s happened with both Santa Cruz and Mares. Both guys have been taking soft opposition for two years. Mares’ last tough opponent was Jhonny Gonzalez in 2013 in a fight in which Mares was knocked out in the 1st round.
Comments are closed.