At the Honda Center, Anaheim, California, Leo Santa Cruz successfully defended his WBC Featherweight title following a 5 round tear-up with Kiko Martinez. The A-side certainly excelled in Santa Cruz vs Martinez as predicted, but it was entertaining, nonetheless.
Though Santa Cruz was more than often the boss, Martinez kept the champ on his toes from the opening bell, refusing to take a step back. If there’s one thing fight fans have come to expect from the bull-rushing Spaniard, it’s that he’s susceptible to knockdowns when sharing the ring with versatile world level opposition.
And Santa Cruz kept that trend alive not long after the fight had begun, knocking down his foe twice courtesy of hard rights. Martinez survived the round and threw himself back into the fight, but his one-dimensional style lead to him eating the greater amount of leather during exchanges. Santa Cruz’s signature high punch output was paying off, his 2.5” height and 3” reach advantage now allowing him to pick off Martinez at range.
Martinez has arguably already found his level in the sport at 122 pounds, and didn’t seem to be doing himself any favors by jumping up to 126 to face Santa Cruz. Martinez is a dangerous fringe-contender at best, and there’s no shame in that. What happened next, however, is surely a sign he needs to drop back down to 122 where he has a greater future.
Martinez was caught by another game-changer in the 5th, and this time was unable to get off the hook. Santa Cruz swarmed his cornered foe, unleashing a flurry of unanswered punches until the referee decided he’d seen enough. Martinez didn’t protest the third man’s intrusion and seemed relieved that the whole thing was over.
This wasn’t the kind of Featherweight championship defense fans have been craving, but we all knew that going in. The fact of the matter is we may have to suffer a bunch more of these gap-fillers long before Santa Cruz gets it on with the division’s finest such as Vasyl Lomachenko and Gary Russell Jr. Where’s there’s politics there’ll be patience, as always. But you already knew that, right? You’re a boxing fan.
Santa Cruz improves to 32 wins, 18 knockouts, 1 draw, while Martinez drops to 35 wins, 26 knockouts, 7 defeats.
Santa Cruz vs Martinez Undercard: Ceja vs Ruiz II
The Santa Cruz vs Martinez card featured another knockout in the chief support’s sequel between Julio Ceja and John Ruiz. And not much time was needed to settle the pair’s unfinished business following Ceja’s 5th round TKO last August.
Ruiz equaled the score and then some, needing just under a minute – 51 seconds to be precise – to dispatch of the WBC Junior Bantamweight champ. Ceja went down off a hellacious right hand, the very first shot Ruiz threw, and was in all kinds of trouble from that point. Ceja was not only buzzed from the shot, but suffered a dislocated/fractured ankle on his way down (confirmed by the ringside doctor post fight).
Ceja beat the count and decided to continue, but was now a sitting duck. Ruiz immediately pounced and forced the referee to close the show following an onslaught of full-blooded punches. And that was…well, that was it. Job done for Ruiz.
Ruiz now picks up the WBC strap, extending his record to 36 wins, 32 knockouts, 3 defeats, while Ceja reduces to 30 wins, 27 knockouts, 2 defeats.
It’s hard to know exactly how to feel about this result. While you can’t fault Ruiz’s peach of a right-hand and subsequent victory overall, you have to wonder what would have happened if Ceja hadn’t suffered that injury. There’s a good chance the fight may have ended just the same, sure, but we’ll never quite know.
So, on that note, I must finish by asking an unavoidable, burning question: Is there enough good reason to see a trilogy-making Ceja vs Ruiz III?
