By Ryan Burton

IBF bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz recently stopped by BoxingScene.com's official audio show, The Boxing Lab. Last Saturday Santa Cruz became the first fighter to beat former champion Eric Morel inside the distance. The Puerto Rican started off by trying to stand his ground and trade with the much younger Santa Cruz. That strategy proved to be flawed as Morel ended up quitting on his stool before a sold out crowd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. 

"Morel had never been stopped and I was able to stop him. He is a two time champion and said that he trained really hard for this fight and that he was going to take me to school. It made it even a bigger win for me to stop him.

"I was surprised he stood in there with me but I was happy that he stayed in and fought me. If he had moved around I would have caught him anyway," Santa Cruz told The Boxing Lab.

Prior to the fight Santa Cruz said that he soon planned on moving up to the 122 division.  On November 10th a unification fight between WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares and WBA champion Anselmo Moreno takes place in Los Angeles. Santa Cruz will be very interested in the outcome of that fight.

"I won a title at 118 and now I am ready to go to 122. There are a lot of challenges up there and I want to fight the top guys.

"It is going to be a tough fight to score. You have a pressure fighter and a guy who likes to box. It's a 50-50 fight. I really don't know who will win but I hope I can fight the winner," revealed Santa Cruz.

You can listen to the interview in its entirety by clicking here: http://tobtr.com/s/3651969

Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com Follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter and tune in to The Boxing Lab, BoxingScene's official audio on Tuesdays. The show is hosted by Ernie Gabion, Luis Sandoval and Ryan Burton.