(Photo Credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME) By Dan Ambrose: WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (31-0-1, 17 KOs) weighed in successfully on Friday for his title defense against #9 WBA Kiko Martinez (35-6, 26 KOs) this Saturday night. Santa Cruz weighed in at 125lbs, and he looked in great shape as he always does.
During the face off at the weigh-in, the 5’7 ½” Santa Cruz looked considerably taller than the 5’5” Martinez, giving the appearance that the two fighters belong in separate weight classes.
Martinez recently moved up in weight from the super bantamweight division after suffering recent defeats at the hands of Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg.
Martinez weighed in at 125.4lbs. He appears ready to fight like he always does. Hopefully, his chin will hold up on Saturday night and not let him down like it did in his knockout losses to Frampton and Quigg.
The Santa Cruz vs. Martinez fight will be televised on Showtime Championship Boxing and will take place at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California.
This should be an easy fight for Santa Cruz compared to his last fight against Abner Mares last August. That fight was competitive in the first six rounds before Santa Cruz shut Mares down in the second half of the contest using his jab and hard power shots to control the action against the shorter Mares.
Martinez is going to have a problem with Santa Cruz’s reach, jab and punching power. The 29-year-old Martinez is a good fighter, but he is very easy to hit and that is not a good thing with him fighting a guy as good as Santa Cruz. Frampton and Quigg were able to nail Martinez at will with their power shots.
Quigg stopped Martinez in just two rounds last year. Martinez has won his last three fights since then, but he’s not fought anyone nearly as good as Quigg or Santa Cruz. You can’t say that Martinez has learned his lesson and improved since his fight against Quigg.
All you can really say is he’s won his last three fights against weaker opposition. There are many question marks with Martinez going into this fight tomorrow night, and those questions will be answered by his performance. It would be surprising if he looks any better than he’s looked in the past. There are certain fighters that Martinez does well against, but I have a feeling that Santa Cruz is not one of them.
Santa Cruz is interested in facing the winner of the Frampton-Quigg fight. He is also interested in facing Vasyl Lomachenko. Unfortunately, that’s a fight that likely won’t happen due to Santa Cruz being with Al Haymon and Lomachenko being promoted by Bob Arum of Top Rank.
Santa Cruz should take care of Martinez without any problems. I think the should be over by the 6th round unless Martinez chooses to play it safe. I doubt that he will. Martinez only knows how to slug and that’ll get him knocked out fast on Saturday.
Other weights on the card:
Julio Ceja 121.4 vs. Hugo Ruiz 122
(WBC super bantamweight title)
Rey Vargas 122.4 vs. Christian Esquivel 123.4
Michael Hunter 197.2 vs. Phil Williams 198
Claudio Marrero 127.6 vs. Jonathan Arrellano 127.4
Ceferino Rodriguez 146 vs. Edgar Riovalle 147.2
Min Wook Kim 139.4 vs. Alvaro Ortiz 138.6
Anthony Flores 142 vs. Carlos Aguilera 140.4
Antonio Santa Cruz 117.2 vs. Jorge Perez 117
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