Santa Cruz vs. Mares 2 possible for Staples Center

By Dan Ambrose: Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares could be heading to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for their rematch in April or May. It’s been 2 years since Santa Cruz defeated Mares by a 12 round majority decision, and finally they’re about to face each other.

Mares isn’t interested in facing Jhonny Gonzalez in a rematch to avenge his 1st round knockout loss he suffered against him five years ago on August 24, 2013. Gonzalez is 36-years-old now, and he’s fighting at super featherweight. Gonzalez was beaten by Gary Russell Jr. and Jonathan Oquendo in 2015. Gonzalez has won his last 7 fights since 2015, albeit it against weak opposition.

The World Boxing Association is trying to eliminate some of the titles in divisions in which they have 2 champions. They were going to order Santa Cruz and Mares fight anyway, but they didn’t need to in this case because they already agreed to face each other.

This is a money fight. Santa Cruz would be better off facing Carl Frampton or WBO champion Oscar Valdez rather than taking a needless rematch against Mares, who he totally dominated. The just that scored the Santa Cruz-Mares fight a draw, Max Deluca, seemed to be watching a different fight from the boxing fans. Mares was absolutely pounded by Santa Cruz in a way that suggests that they should never fight again. Hopefully, this will be the last time Santa Cruz faces Mares if he beats him again.

The 32-year-old Mares has not been very active since the loss to Santa Cruz in 2015. Mares has fought just 2 times in the last 3 years in WBA World featherweight champion Jesus Andres Cuellar by a 12 round split decision in 2016, and then Andres Gutierrez by a 10th round technical decision last October in 2017. Mares wanted to fight twice in 2017, but he instead up with just 1 fight. Not fighting often has hurt Mares’ popularity unfortunately, as he’s not done enough to make the boxing public forget about his one-sided loss to Santa Cruz in 2015.

“We’re just hoping to get a date in the Staples Center for the spring, either in April or May,” said promoter Richard Schaefer to the WBCboxing.com.

Santa Cruz holds the WBA World featherweight title. He defeated Chris Avalos by an 8th round knockout on October 14 last year. Santa Cruz and Mares both fought on the same card in interim bouts on Showtime Boxing at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. It was decided that Santa Cruz and Mares would take interim bouts to build up their rematch in 2018, even though it’s a fight that really doesn’t need to be built. The boxing fans that care about the Santa Cruz vs. mares fight already know about their past history. The fans that don’t know probably won’t bother to watch the fight anyway. The two of them fighting in mismatches against over-matched opposition in Avalos and Gutierrez was a waste of time of the boxing fans.

Besides the rematch with Santa Cruz, Mares is interested in facing former 2 division world champion Carl Frampton and WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez. Those guys might not be attainable fights if Mares loses to Santa Cruz again. Mares is already seen by a lot of fans as paper champion at 126, given that he’s holding the lesser of the 2 WBA titles. Mares didn’t beat one of the well-respected champions to win his WBA belt. He picked it up against Jesus Andres Cuellar.

Mares is really high on Oscar Valdez, seeing him as the future of the 126-lb. division despite him looking really bad in his last 2 fights against Miguel Marriaga and Genesis Servania.

“(Óscar Valdez) is growing fight after fight,” said Mares to ESPN Deportes. “In the last one, he was dropped [by Servania], but he go up and changed the style and type of fight. I liked that change and he’s going to improve. He’s the future of boxing,” said Mares.

Valdez may lose his next fight against Scott Quigg on March 10. Mares will need to come up with a different appraisal of Valdez when/if that happens. Valdez can’t very well be the future if boxing if he gets beaten by Quigg. Valdez would have had more problems against Servania if the Filipino fighter knew how to cut off the ring when he started moving a lot. Servania stopped throwing punches, and just gave the fight to Valdez. A good featherweight would have been a major problem for Valdez had they been inside the ring with him.

Santa Cruz and Mares have both had their interim fights against Avalos and Gutierrez. They’re now ready to face each other in April or May. It’s too bad Santa Cruz’s father wanted a tune-up fight, because they would have been better off keeping the momentum going by facing each other. After the grueling rematch with Frampton, Santa Cruz followed his father’s advice by taking the fight against Avalos instead of facing Mares. It’s too bad. It would have been good for Santa Cruz to face Mares in 2017 rather than letting the fight marinate needlessly.

“I wanted to do two fights in 2017 but it was not possible,” said Mares. ”My plan is to do three [fights] in 2018. This year I am going to show that I deserve to be a world champion and in this division, that is full of talent. I feel that I am among the best. Unfortunately, I have fought little,” said Mares.

It’s ambitious of Mares to be shooting for 3 fights in 2018, but it’ll believe that when I see it. Abner Mares hasn’t fought 3 times in a year since 2010. That was 8 years ago when he was just 24-years-old. It’s doubtful that Mares is going to be able to fight 3 times in 2018 at the age of 32. I don’t see it happening. Mares might want to fight 3 times this year, but I don’t think his body will let him. Another big problem that will likely keep Mares from fighting 3 times this year is all the time that is required to setup the bigger fights like the rematch with Santa Cruz, and his fights with Carl Frampton and Valdez. If those fights are going to take place, it’s going to require a great deal of negotiating. It would be a momentous year for Mares if he’s able to get the 3 big fights that he wants against Santa Cruz, Frampton and Valdez.

If Mares can get those 3 fights and win them all, it would be huge. It’s obviously hurts Mares’ chances of fighting 3 times in 2018 if his rematch with Santa Cruz doesn’t take place until May. If that happens, Mares would be looking at 4 months of recovery time before he fights for the second time in 2018. At the earliest, Mares would be back inside the ring in September. The only way Mares will be able to get his third fight in for the year is if he fights in December after just 3 months recovery time from his fight in September. I don’t see it happening, especially if Mares takes a dangerous opponent like Frampton or Valdez in September. At best, I see Mares fighting Frampton in May, and losing that fight. After that, Mares will likely go into the rebuilding phase again and take on a softer opponent in September.