Santa Cruz won’t fight without father as trainer

0
964

Leo Santa CruzThere has always been an understood notion in boxing that father/son relationships are inevitably destroyed when the father attempts to train his son, and those efforts are catastrophic when the father assumes the responsibility of lead trainer. No matter how you spin it, a father/son partnership in boxing will almost always turn sour; these findings are based on precedents throughout the history of the sport.

However, recently we have gotten an influx of father/son teams at the world-class level that have refuted this notion, at least to some degree. Shawn Porter and his father Ken Porter have found success. Danny Garcia and his father Angel Garcia have shown even greater results throughout their reign at 140 lbs.

But the father-son team of Leo Santa Cruz and his trainer/father Jose Santa Cruz remains a mystery in terms of how successful they are and will be. There is no doubt that Team Santa Cruz has maintained at least a vague level of success thus far in Leo’s career. For example, Leo has won a world title at junior-featherweight and one at bantamweight.

Leo is undefeated with a record of 30-0-1 and 17 KO/TKO’s. That is impressive by any standards, but the lack of prestige amongst the names that make up his resume calls into question just how good Santa Cruz is, and more importantly how good he will be.

Regardless, this trend of father/son training teams has sparked a new found confidence in the general idea of how successful it can be. Leo can raise the profile of father-son teams with a win over his toughest challenger to date in Abner Mares on August 29th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Leo is confident heading into that fight, although it is tough to gauge his chances considering he will be making a huge leap in competition. His willingness to step up may not be in question, but his readiness is. The problem is Leo is no longer being afforded a learning curve, so hopefully he and his father know where they are and what they’ve gotten themselves into.

But Leo isn’t about to start doubting his abilities, and he certainly isn’t questioning his father’s ability to prepare him for the grand stage. Leo says that he has never considered changing trainers and that his father offers things that he feels he wouldn’t get from any other trainer.

“It’s never crossed my mind,” Santa Cruz told reporters when asked if he’s ever considered utilizing the services of any other trainer. “I’ve always been comfortable with [my father] since the beginning. Since I started, my dad has always been there, he wasn’t my trainer but he was always there (with advice). He tells me how it is. Some other trainers are scared, or they don’t want to scream at you. My dad, he screams at me. He tells me how it is and if I’m doing something wrong he tells me.”

Although Leo remains firm on his word that he has never considered obtaining another trainer, that doesn’t mean the conversation has never come up. In fact, it was Jose Santa Cruz who raised the issue with his son in past discussions.

“There was a time and [my dad] was the one that told me ‘hey, you need another trainer,’ so he took me to some other trainers and I told him ‘no, I don’t want no other trainers, I feel comfortable with you. If I don’t train with you, then I don’t want to fight no more.’

It will be easy to brush off future questioning of his father remaining at the helm if Leo can defeat Mares. The problem is determining Leo’s status heading into the fight. As the undefeated fighter with the push of an unblemished action fighter, he should be considered the favorite. But Mares is the only one with star credentials and wins over highly acclaimed opposition.

We just can’t be sure of Santa Cruz at this time. He will either walk into the Staples Center on August 29th to blow Mares away, or he will be dominated from the moment the bell rings. Of course, we could get a highly competitive fight between two evenly matched opponents.

The problem is all three scenarios are as likely as the next, and we shouldn’t be surprised by any one of the potential outcomes.