Santa Cruz Wants Mares But Not On Short Notice, Wants No Excuses

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Leo Santa CruzLeo Santa Cruz came out of the gate on fire when he first stepped on the scene drawing comparisons to Antonio Margarito with his punching output. But in 2014, a lot of criticism came his way with the level and size of his opponent. Things were supposed to change in 2015 but so far into the year, it’s the same.

When the announcement came that he was going to be on the Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard last week, not many expected a decent opponent. Abner Mares threw a challenge out to Santa Cruz that he would fight him on May 2nd. Santa Cruz feels that if they made that fight with three weeks’ notice and he beat Mares, there would be excuses on the timeframe for training, which is fair.

“He said that three weeks is not enough for getting ready for a big fight like this,” Santa Cruz told ThaBoxingVoice.com. “If I would have taken him in 3 weeks, it would have been a joke. I want to fight him and have him come in fully prepared because I don’t want him to have any excuses. I want to have him at his best and whoever wins to have no excuses. So hopefully after this fight, we make the fight happen. I’ll talk to my team, and I want him next.”

Santa Cruz also feels that the fight can be its own main event and sell out a venue in California.

“The fans want it, and we want it,” stated Santa Cruz, “I think it could sell out the Staples Center as the main event. I sparred with him 3 or 4 years ago; we went to war in the gym. This is a business, once we get up there we have to leave it all in the ring.”

With Mayweather on his last legs of elite boxing, there may be a void for who takes over the traditional May and September Mexican dates. Santa Cruz feels he can fill the void in the future

“Hopefully after Mayweather retires, I will be leading Mexico on those dates. I want to be like Julio Cesar Chavez and be a Mexican legend like him,” stated Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz feels his rivalry with Mares can be sort of like Morales-Barrera but without the trilogy.

“They are saying it could be a trilogy. If we fight the first time I’m going to beat him if we fight him a second time, I’m going to beat him again.”