Santa Cruz Says He’s Willing to Travel to the UK to Fight Frampton or Quigg

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    leo-santa-cruzWBC Super Bantamweight Champion Leo Santa Cruz (28-0, 16 KOs) will defend his title on January 17th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada against Jesus Ruiz (33-5, 22 KOs). The pair will provide chief support for Bermane Stiverne and Deontay Wilder when they tussle for the heavyweight belt of the same sanctioning body.

    Some criticism has being thrown at Santa Cruz recently as he is perceived as not doing enough to pursue more significant fights, ideally against one of the other three belt-holders in his division, Guillermo Rigondeaux and Scott Quigg who hold the WBA super and WBA regular titles respectively and IBF champion Carl Frampton. Rigondeaux  also holds “The Ring” and WBO versions of the title.

    Santa Cruz talked of the two representatives from the UK when speaking to sky sports.com. On Frampton, who has a defense scheduled against Chris Avalos on February 28th, he said, “I’ve been wanting to fight him since a while ago. He has the IBF now so I think a unification could come right there. Right now, I think he’s got a mandatory against Avalos, so hopefully, after that one if I’m available, I would like to unify against him.”

    And on Scott Quigg he seemed equally as amiable to making a fight happen. “His trainer and his manager have been telling me that he wants to fight me and I’ve been telling them that I want to fight him too, but right now he has a hand injury. If I’m available when he’s better, then I’m willing to fight him too.”

    He even claims to be willing to travel to make these proposed clashes a reality and fight in the UK should it be required of him.

    “I would like to fight over there because they say it’s really nice. I’m willing to go and I’d like to go to different places to fight.”

    That all seems reasonable enough, so why hasn’t one of these fights happened yet? There is this strange stand off between all the titlists in the 122 pound division at the moment. Carl Frampton vs. Scott Quigg is the most sumptuous option for the fans in the UK and has been called for over the last few years. The Brits were told to wait until both had belts so the fight would be even more glorious. Now their waists are no longer chilly and that fight is no closer to being made. Santa Cruz has been hibernating in California since time began it feels like, and nobody even wants to let Rigondeaux’s name pass their lips in case the Cuban boogeyman bursts out from under their bed as they sleep at night. I’m happy to see Santa Cruz is dipping a tentative toe in the water, but all four of them need to mix it up. We’re missing out on some cracking fights.