By Sonee Thompson
Over 12 rounds of boxing, Leo Santa Cruz threw over a thousand punches to finally convince the boxing world why he belongs to be mentioned in the conversation of elite boxers as he defeated the “never say die” Abner Mares in a 12 round decision. Santa Cruz (31-0-1, 17 KOs) captured the vacant WBA featherweight belt, earning a world title in his third weight class in a fight that kept the energized Los Angeles crowd hyped and on their feet most of the evening.
The Staples Center atmosphere was electric as Mares came out in round 1 like a charging bull pent up for a month. If punches could speak – Mares’ punches would have said “I ain’t no punk and I don’t fake the funk!” The wild exchanges in round 1 were only a precursor to what was to come throughout the fight.
Mares’ strategy was clear from the get go – get inside and blast out body punches to weaken Santa Cruz. The problem he ran into was Leo Santa Cruz at his best, patiently waiting for Mares to step out. Mares threw over 900 punches but Every time the boxers stood toe to toe – Santa Cruz would use his height and reach to land one after the other crisp hard punches to the face of Mares.
Punch stat number for both boxers were off the charts, but despite Mares’ best efforts to stick to boxing, Santa Cruz pulled the street fighter out of him to duke it out on the inside exchanges. Santa Cruz frustrated Mares by showing comfort in both the inside and outside exchanges. That said, it was not an easy fight to score, nor for Leo Santa Cruz to win, because both fighters had to lay it all on the line in order to keep up with each other from round to round.
Leo Santa Cruz showed battle scars in the form of extreme eye swelling and Abner Mares also took a beating by sustaining multiple head butts and hard crisp and accurate punches from Santa Cruz. Even if Mares had boxed more – he had his hands full with Santa Cruz who kept coming forward. Both men rocked each other with dizzying punches at points in the fight, but no one went down.
It was the best fight I’ve seen Mares have in a while and he was the most formidable opponent Santa Cruz has faced in his career. Mares has nothing to regret – he gave it all he had and look good doing it, but ultimately could not mitigate the tall youthful and resilient boxing of Leo Santa Cruz.
It’s hard to outwork Santa Cruz. The guy just doesn’t stop punching, though I think he needs to break the right hand twitch habit that he has formed. It’s not a feint and serves no purpose. As he moves up the ranks – his toughest opponents will find a way to exploit it and with proper timing use it against him to win rounds.
The scoring for the fight seemed reasonable except Max deLuca’s 114-114, which was a bit of a mystery. Judges Steve Morrow and Jesse Reyes scored the fight 117-111 for Santa Cruz. I thought it was close, but not dead even. Though it would be fun to watch – I don’t see much purpose in a rematch as I think the result will be similar – a Mexican slugfest. If no sequel develops Santa Cruz will probably move on to WBC champ Gary Russell. As for Abner Mares – he still has it; he just fought the better man Saturday night.
