The StubHub Center in Carson, California is the site of the Saturday August 24 bout between unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz of California and Victor Terrazas of Mexico. Terrazas’ WBC Super Bantamweight Championship on the line in the 12-round contest.
This is the 24-year-old Santa Cruz’s second bout in the 122 lb division after stopping former champion Alexander Munoz back in May. Santa Cruz is a former bantamweight titleholder who is very aggressive and possesses an excellent body attack. The bout will be broadcast on Showtime in America and Super Channel in Canada.
Santa Cruz enters the bout with a record of 24-0-1 along with 14 Kos while Terrazas carries a 37-2-1 record with him with 21 Kos to his name. This is a slight step up in class for Santa Cruz and he’ll have to make sure his defence has been worked on in training, which is his weakest area. However, he throws so many punches that his opponents don’t usually have a chance to reply with many of their own.
The top boxers in the division are Nonito Donaire and Guillermo Rigondeaux, but Terrazas isn’t too bad at all. He’s lost just twice in 40 bouts and one of those came way back in 2003 when he was fighting in his pro debut. The 30-year-old champion has beaten some pretty good boxers in former bantamweight champion Nehomar Cermeno in 2011 and former three-division belt holder Fernando Montiel. Terrazas won the vacant WBC Super Bantamweight crown against Cristian Mijares in his last fight, so this is his first defence of the title. He’s going into the fight with an 11-bout winning streak and has lost just once in his last 32 contests.
However, it could be argued that while Terrazas has beaten some top pros, most of them were past their prime when they met. Also the wins against Cermeno and Mijares were by close split decisions and the unanimous victory over Montiel was also a close decision. Terrazas appears to be doing just enough to win his bouts, but he hasn’t been dominant in them. In his other loss, he was stopped in 2010 by Rendall Munroe of Britain, so his chin is somewhat a question mark. He’s also only fought twice outside of Mexico, with the loss to Munroe being one of them.
Santa Cruz is an exciting fighter and sooner or later he’s going to have to take a major step up in class by taking on somebody like Rigondeaux or Abner Mares. The challenger will have to be wary of Terrazas’ effective right hand and his body shots. However, Santa Cruz usually throws caution to the wind as he concentrates on his own body attack. He’s quite relentless and throws punches in great volume.
Santa Cruz captured the IBF Bantamweight Championship in the summer of 2012 when he beat Vusi Malinga. He defended the crown against Victor Zaleta, Albert Guevara, and Eric Morel and looked impressive. He’s very accurate with his punches and doesn’t waste many shots. He wants to turn this bout into a brawl and if Terrazas decides he’s willing then this should be an all-action scrap.
This could be a toe-to-toe brawl with the last man standing taking the belt out of the ring. It should be an excellent fight early, but Santa Cruz will likely wear the champion down in the later rounds and stop him in the last third of the fight.
