Rigondeaux willing to face Leo Santa Cruz on January 17th

rigondeaux3By Chris Williams: WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (14-0, 9 KOs) will be making an uninteresting stay busy fight against little known Hisashi Amagasa (28-4-2, 19 KOs) on December 31st at the Bodymaker Colosseum, Osaka, Osaka, Japan.

The Rigondeaux-Amagasa fight will likely be about as competitive as Rigondeaux’s recent fight against Sod Kokietgym, who Rigondeaux stopped in the 1st round last July. Rigondeaux is currently stuck fighting the unknown guys like Amagasa because the top fighters in the super bantamweight division aren’t showing any interest in fighting him right now.

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September 13 Mayweather-Maidana 2 undercard fights rated: Could one steal the show

angulo554By Gav Duthie: Mayweather and Golden Boy promotions have decided not to opt for chief undercard support this Saturday like they did with Amir Khan v Collazo but the undercard is shaping up nicely. There are some fairly competitive fights and titles on the line. Here we rate the fights and speculate if any might outshine the main event. 

Humberto Soto 64-8-2 (35) v John Molina 27-4 (22)
Fight Rating: 9/10
Fight Type: All action

This has the potential to be the fight of the night. I love fighters like John Molina. Will he ever become a world champion, probably not but it doesn’t matter. He always entertains and always gives us good fights. He’s a Mickey Ward, Arturo Gatti type throwback who will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final bell. He might feel a little hard done by on Saturday as he watches  Mickey Bey fight for a world title after he amazingly stopped him in round 10 for his only loss to date.

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Leo Santa Cruz vs. Manuel Roman = Danny Garcia vs. Rod Salka 2?

santacruz34By Dan Ambrose: WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KOs) will be defending his title this Saturday night against a fringe contender named Manuel Roman (17-2-2, 6 KOs) on the Floyd Mayeather Jr vs. Marcos Maidana 2 fight card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Santa Cruz-Roman fight is the chief support for the Mayweather-Maidana 2 fight, but unfortunately it’s not a great fight and it’s kind of surprising that the match-up hasn’t received much attention for the mismatch that it is on paper. We’re basically talking about Danny Garcia vs. Rod Salka 2 in the Santa Cruz v. Roman fight, because this is the same kind of situation.

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Rigondeux-Alvalos fight ordered by WBO, Guillermo wants Santa Cruz

rigondeaux3By Chris Williams: The WBO wants WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (14-0, 9 KOs) to fight the Top Rank promoted #1 WBO Chris Avalos (24-2, 18 KOs) next, but Rigondeaux is busy calling out WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz for a unification fight.

That’s the match that Rigondeaux would prefer to get if he can get the fight. On Monday, the WBO ordered Rigondeaux and Avalos to start negotiations for a fight between them. Rigondeaux is no longer with Top Rank, and it’s not probable that HBO will televise the fight given that they opted not to televise Rigondeaux’s last fight against Sod Kokietgym.

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Leo Santa Cruz: I’m ready for Rigondeaux

santacruz3By Dan Ambrose: WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KOs) told WBA/WBO 122 pound champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (14-0, 9 KO’s) that he’s ready to face him in a brief exchange on twitter this week.

Rigondeaux and his manager Gary Hyde said that they’re willing to face Santa Cruz in his next scheduled fight date on September 13th on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Marcos Maidana 2 fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Rigondeaux said to Santa Cruz “I’m ready to fight you in September anywhere. Team Rigondeaux are ready for you!”

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Santa Cruz wants Quigg next, then Frampton later in the year

Leo Santa Cruz vs Victor Zaleta(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KO’s) says he’ll be looking to fight a unification match against WBA World 122lb champion Scott Quigg (28-0-2, 21 KO’s) this Summer, and after that Santa Cruz wants to defend his title against #1 WBC, #2 IBF Carl Frampton (18-0, 13 KO’s) at the end of the year. Santa Cruz says he sees Frampton as the stronger guy between him and Quigg, but Frampton doesn’t have a title in his possession like Quigg, so he’s less important right now.

It makes a heck of a lot of sense for Santa Cruz to go after Quigg so that he can unify the titles before he takes the lesser fight against Frampton. That may be a big fight in Northern Ireland where Frampton is from, but in the U.S, a Frampton-Santa Cruz fight doesn’t mean much more than Santa Cruz’s previous title defenses against the likes of Cristian Mijares, Cesar Seada, Victor Terrazas, Alexander Munoz, Victor Zaleta and Eric Morel.

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Quigg vs. Leo Santa Cruz unification match in the works, says Eddie Hearn

quigg632By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBA super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg (28-0-1, 21 KO’s), says he’s working on setting up a unification match between Quigg and WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KO’s) for a fight that he wants to take place next for the 25-year-old Quigg. Hearn is cutting in line to make this fight, as #1 WBC Carl Frampton was thought to be the next opponent for Santa Cruz. Frampton’s manager Barry McGuigan wants the fight, and Santa Cruz has already said he’d come to the UK to face Frampton for the right amount of money.

Quigg destroyed replacement opponent Tshifhiwa Munyai by a 2nd round TKO last Saturday night at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, UK. Munyai had been pulled in to take the fight at the last minute after Quigg’s originally scheduled opponent Nehomar Cermeno couldn’t make it due to visa problems.

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Santa Cruz: I’ll fight Carl Frampton in Belfast

frampton40By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KO’s) is interested in traveling to Belfast to defend his title against his No.1 WBC mandatory challenger Carl Frampton over there in his home city this July for the right money. Santa Cruz, 25, doesn’t see the 5’6” Frampton as a threat to him, so he’s willing to go over there and knock him out in front of his own Irish fans in July.

In other words, Santa Cruz isn’t worried about being robbed by the judges, as he intends on leaving them with nothing to do but to watch the spectacle.

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