After last night’s highly entertaining and hard fought victory over Abner Mares in Los Angeles, Leo Santa Cruz picked up his first featherweight world title after the (vacant) WBA 126 lb strap was added to the mix at the last minute, and the Mexico born star certainly went some way to shaking off the ‘cherry-picker’ tag that has dogged him over recent times, turning in a classy and measured performance, in what was billed as the “Battle of L.A.”
With judge Max De Luca turning in a score of 114-114, to the other two judges 117-111, a strong enough case for a rematch can be made, especially given the high levels of action that began with the visibly smaller Mares starting strong and fast, before gradually being worn down as Santa Cruz found his range and imposed his strength, tattooing Abner with the better quality shots.
“I thought he might try to outbox me, but he came straight out and he wanted to knock me out like I thought he might. But we figured him out and we got the win,” Santa Cruz said. “I’m very happy. This is a dream come true. For all my fans that supported me, this was for them.”
Predictably, Mares thought he had done enough to win, and the scores of 117-111 may indeed be a tiny bit wide, which begs the question, will we see the rematch?
“You know what? It was a close fight. I have to be honest, it was a close fight. But I honestly thought that I won the fight,” Mares said.
“It was a close fight, but I thought I pulled it off. What else can I say?”
Also sat ringside at the Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN event, was Welsh IBF champion and fellow Al Haymon fighter Lee Selby, who last week again expressed his interest in the big unification fights, and after last night, Santa Cruz will now be firmly on the radar for the talented Welshman, who is seeking to make a couple of defences before attempting to unify.
For his part, Santa Cruz is happy to do it all again with Mares, or hunt down the big fights with the likes of Selby and WBC champion Gary Russell Jnr.
“If he wants the rematch, I’ll give him the rematch. Whatever the fans want,” Santa Cruz said. “I want to fight the big fights for the fans.”
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