The Showtime Championship Boxing card headlined by Abner Mares vs. Jhonny Gonzalez featured a pair of fights that were carrying a certian expectation with the fans. Some were expecting competitive bouts, others were expecting nothing but absolute fireworks. If there was one thing that fans weren’t expecting however, it was for either of the two fights to be an absolute route. That is precisely what the Santa Cruz vs. Terrazas bout turned out to be.
Going into the featherweight tilt between Leo Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 knockouts) and Victor Terrazas (37-3-1, 21 knockouts), many thought that Terrazas would provide the toughest test of Santa Cruz’ still young career and early on that seemed to be the case.
In the opening round of the bout, it was Terrazas who was determined to play the role of the aggressor early while Santa Cruz was sitting back in an effort to pick his shots. Terrazas landed the first big blow of the night, but Santa Cruz managed to shrug it off. Before Terrazas could get much more done in the way of offense, Santa Cruz began tagging his opponent with stinging shots to both the head and body.
The following round proved to be much more of the same, but Terrazas still managed to have his moments of success after the opening exchange saw him tag Santa Cruz with a few uppercuts. Much like the previous round, Santa Cruz adapted and turned on the pressure as he continued to find a home for that lunging right hand whenever Terraza tried to back away.Things only got worse for Terraza as the round went on, and Santa Cruz began to drop bomb after bomb while his opponent was along the ropes.
When both fighters answered the bell for the third round it was clear to see that the damage from Santa Cruz’ punches were beginning to take their toll on Terrazas. This message was especially clear to Santa Cruz as he came forward and seemed keen to stop Terrazas from the onset. After the trademark volley of blows, Terrazas was finally forced to drop to his knees and suffer the knockdown. Although he answered the ref’s count, Terrazas was a beat fighter, and Santa Cruz put him down for good with another volley capped by a brutal body shot. Terrazas answered the count, but with a badly swollen eye he decided that he had sustained enough damage.
With another TKO victory under his belt, Santa Cruz has added another scalp and title to his still growing résumé.
