Leo Santa Cruz-Abner Mares: Post-Fight Report Card

By Cliff Rold

The biggest win of his career might be seen as a validation against a lot of the recent criticism leveled at Leo Santa Cruz.

It shouldn’t be.

His performance against Abner Mares on Saturday night was why it was so frustrating to watch an exciting talent in his prime wasting time. Since a win over Cristian Mijares, itself more of a showcase against a name veteran, Santa Cruz had faced the sort of fighters he should have been beyond.

Let’s hope there’s no turning back from here. At 27, and with a physical style, Santa Cruz should be maximizing what he can get out his career. At Featherweight, there are some pretty clear brackets in terms of promotional ties.

Under the PBC umbrella, that leaves some pretty obvious possibilities. None of them are bad.

Let’s go the report card.

Grades

Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Mares B+; Santa Cruz B/Post: A; A

Mares got off to a strong start Saturday, smothering Santa Cruz and not leaving the taller, longer man the range to establish his jab. That didn’t last long. For a stretch of the second round, Santa Cruz started to actualize his physical advantages. By the second half of the fight, a possible Fight of the Year became a really good but relatively one-sided affair.

Mares was too short, in height and arm length, to maintain the offense he needed. Santa Cruz was holding serve during intense exchanges in the trenches and, when Mares was outside, Santa Cruz was landing hard and clean.

Despite that, it was the sort of fight where the odd final scores weren’t that hard to believe. 117-111 was fair and accurate from this vantage point, but the fight had several swing rounds in the first half and Mares made a case for a few frames in the second. Could that result for a good judge in a swing that resulted in a draw?

Absolutely.

It’s why we have three judges. Look to the wild variance in scoring on social media from round to round on Saturday. There were some viewers who saw a draw; even a handful that saw Mares winning. The majority saw Santa Cruz safely scoring the duke. The same was true of the judges.

The real problem for Mares might simply be he’s in the wrong weight class. He’s small for a Featherweight in the day-before weigh-in era and it has showed in fights with the long limbed Santa Cruz and Johnny Gonzalez.

And those were fighters who were really big for Bantamweight and Jr. Featherweight.

He hasn’t really got to fighters natural to Featherweight. If he can make the weight still, 122 is a better fit for Mares. He can still make excellent fights with the collection of talent there. Carl Frampton is now with the PBC. Mares-Frampton would be an outstanding fight. It could whet appetites for a possible move up in weight fro Frampton or rejuvenate Mares.

Santa Cruz more than has the frame for Featherweight and there are two fights in the class that stand out on the PBC side of the aisle.

On Saturday, Santa Cruz won a WBA belt in the division. The WBA’s other beltholder, Jesus Cuellar, won his last fight on a PBC card against Vic Darchinyan. While he isn’t listed on their website as one of ‘their’ fighters, one would assume that fight is possible in that universe. It’s the best action fight, on paper, Santa Cruz can make in the immediate future.

Also available under the PBC umbrella would be a unification scrap with Gary Russell. Russell-Santa Cruz would be an intriguing clash of speed and pressure though whether it would be as exciting as Santa Cruz-Cuellar is debatable.

In the current scheme of things, Featherweight isn’t going to produce the sort of unification that could clearly define a top of the class fighter. We aren’t likely to see something like Santa Cruz-Vasyl Lomachenko. So just make the most exciting fights first and let the chips fall where they may. 

Report Card and Staff Picks 2015: 65-15

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com