Leo Santa Cruz: If Dad Didn't Get Better, I May Have Pulled Out

By Victor Salazar

New York - As WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KO's) was greeted by fans and welcomed by the Mexican Consulate in New York, he looked on to his father and trainer Jose Santa Cruz.

Jose, famous for wearing his cowboy hat in the corner of his son - is in the battle of his life with bone cancer, a battle that he's winning. As Leo Santa Cruz prepares for the toughest fight of his career in the ring against Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KO's) on Saturday night in Brooklyn, he feels its nothing to what his father and family have gone through so far.

"If he can go through that, why cant I do that come to New York and fight," Santa Cruz told BoxingScene.com about his father's fight with cancer. "If he can defeat cancer, why can't I come in and win my fight. If he wasn't doing better, I may have not taking the fight or have gone through with this but he is here and now I'm here ready to go to battle."

Under his father's tutelage and his father's will, Santa Cruz envisions victory this Saturday.

"The biggest fight was in the gym and thinking of my dad and the cancer," explained Santa Cruz. "The hard work already went in the training, now its time to give the fans the good fight and with my dad, I visualize my dads tutelage and i see a victory."

Camp was rough but headlining a main event in New York is something Santa Cruz never imagined.

"For this camp i did everything great, a couple of the weeks i felt weak or not as strong as i wanted to but after the weigh in i eat, i feel better and stronger. I'm reminded by my Dad who sometimes wouldn't eat when we were in Mexico so we could eat and now I see him winning his fight and we're both in New York in the main event, it's amazing"