When one talks about the most fun to watch fighters in world boxing it's hard not to including the name of Leo Santa Cruz (24-0-1, 14) a really fun to watch, all action fighter who is like a smaller and improved version of Antonio Margarito.
Santa Cruz, who made his name at Bantamweight, looks to step up to Super Bantamweight this week and claim the WBC title at 122lbs as he takes on fellow Mexican Victor Terrazas (37-2-1, 21) in an attempt to become a 2-weight world champion.
The lead story is of course that of Santa Cruz stepping up though for me the real story is that of the fight it's self, a story that is going to be a lot of fun as both men come to fight and both men tend to enjoy letting their hands go.
Terrazas won the title last time out taking a debated decision over the skilled Cristian Mijares, in a bout many felt Mijares had won. Although Terrazas was competitive through out it was a worry that he was dropped by Mijares and despite making a solid start Terrazas was looking like a tired fighter towards the end.
It's the stamina of Terrazas that really leaves me with questions. In his most recent loss, the only one that matters considering his first came on his debut, he started well against Rendall Munroe but tired out in the middle rounds and was stopped as must from exhaustion as anything else. It's fair to say that this is a big issue when when you fight someone who is busy, in your face and will grind you down mentally and physically.
Unfortunately for Terrazas, Santa Cruz is the type of fighter who get in your face from the opening bell, push you around with his strength and then beat you down with his relentless work rate that sees him going to the head and body in clusters. Although no single shot of Santa Cruz's is concussive the sheer number of them is draining and by the middle rounds most of his opponents have either been spent or are starting to think more about protecting themselves than trying to fight back.
Whilst it's true that Santa Cruz is going up a division he did appear to be massive at Bantamweight and aged just 25 he is certainly more of a natural Super Bantamweight now than a Bantamweight. In fact the move up a division may well see him not only maintaining his insane work rate but also have more force on every shot with the extra few pounds counting for a lot in these lower weights.
My view on this fight is that for 6 or 7 rounds we'll have some special. Both guys unloading shots on the other like rock-em-sock-em robots but in the second half of the fight the battle will slowly be beaten out of Terrazas who will be stopped in the later rounds, probably by his corner after a really bad round.
Prediction-Santa Cruz TKO10
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