LAS VEGAS – Leo Santa Cruz is bothered by the criticism he has taken for not facing the type of opponents fans want to watch him fight.

Santa Cruz’s critics have been particularly tough on the three-division champion for fighting Miguel Flores on the Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz undercard Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Some Internet sports books have listed Santa Cruz as a 100-1 favorite to defeat Flores in their 12-round fight for the WBA’s vacant “super” 130-pound championship.

No matter what skeptics think, Santa Cruz contends that he wants to prove himself versus the likes of Gary Russell Jr., Gervonta Davis and Vasiliy Lomachenko.

“I want a big fight,” Santa Cruz told krikya360.com prior to a press conference Wednesday at MGM Grand. “People are thinking that I’m scared of those fighters. I want to fight Gervonta Davis to prove that I’m not scared of nobody.”

Fighting Davis could require Santa Cruz to move up another weight class, to 135 pounds, if Davis decides he doesn’t want to move back down to 130 to face Santa Cruz. The 31-year-old Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs), of Rosemead, California, will make his debut at the super featherweight limit of 130 pounds when he encounters Houston’s Flores (24-2, 12 KOs) in the third of four fights FOX Sports will distribute as part of its pay-per-view telecast (9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT; $74.95 in HD).

Santa Cruz admits he has taken some of the negative feedback for facing Flores to heart.

“It bothers me a lot because, deep inside my heart, I know I’ll fight any of the fighters that they want me to [fight],” Santa Cruz said. “I want to fight them. It’s just that the fights haven’t gotten made. I don’t know for what reason, but I do want to fight those fighters.”

Santa Cruz suspects money is the reason that at least the fight versus Russell hasn’t happened. He hopes to face either Russell (30-1, 18 KOs), whom Santa Cruz expects to move up to 130 pounds, or Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) at some point in 2020.

Meanwhile, he’ll have to endure more criticism if he defeats Flores on Saturday night.

“People are always gonna talk, you know?,” Santa Cruz told a group of reporters recently. “They want the best out of you and everything. Me, I just know this is my job. I fight whoever they tell me, like I say. Workers, when they have a job, they do what they already tell ‘em to do. They’re not gonna go and tell their boss, ‘Hey, I wanna do this. I wanna do that.’ I just tell them, ‘Hey, this is who I wanna fight,’ and if it happens, it happens. Well, whoever they throw in front of me, that’s who I fight.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.