By Dan Ambrose: WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs) did not look good in defeating former IBF super bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (36-7, 26 KOs) by a 5th round knockout TKO on Saturday night in Santa Cruz’s first defense of his WBA 126lb title at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California, USA.
Santa Cruz dropped Martinez in the 1st round. Four rounds later, he finished him off with a blizzard of punches in the 5th round to get a stoppage. In between all this, the two fighters threw shots at close range in a phone booth type fight.
By Scott Gilfoid: Earlier today, bantamweight contender Jaime McDonnell (20-2-1, 9 KO’s) made weight for his fight against the devastating puncher Julio Ceja (24-0, 22 KO’s) for their fight on Saturday for the vacant IBF bantamweight title that previously belonged to Leo Santa Cruz before he vacated it to move up to 122.