Santa Cruz Hopes Mares Overcomes Eye Issue; Wants Rematch

By Keith Idec

Leo Santa Cruz hopes Abner Mares overcomes his eye issue and returns to the ring soon.

If, as expected, the 30-year-old Mares can come back from the reported concerns regarding his vision that forced the New York State Athletic Commission to postpone his June 25 fight against WBA featherweight title-holder Jesus Cuellar, Santa Cruz is open to a rematch against the former three-division champion. Santa Cruz (32-0-1, 18 KOs), who’ll encounter Northern Ireland’s Carl Frampton (22-0, 14 KOs) on Saturday night in Brooklyn, defeated Mares by majority decision in a 12-rounder nearly 11 months ago at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

“When I heard about his eye, I was sad to hear that,” Santa Cruz told BoxingScene.com. “I felt bad. Hopefully, everything comes out great now and he’s still able to fight, because I would like to fight him again. I would like the rematch. The fans want us to fight again. And I know it would be an entertaining, exciting fight for the fans.”

Their first fight mostly amounted to compelling action, but Santa Cruz won by the same sizeable margin – 117-111 – on two of the three scorecards submitted by judges Steve Morrow and Jesse Reyes. A third judge, Max DeLuca, scored the Santa Cruz-Mares match even (114-114).

Despite DeLuca’s scorecard, the 27-year-old Santa Cruz commanded much more respect from boxing fans and media after defeating Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs), who hasn’t fought since losing to Santa Cruz.

“That fight made a big, big difference,” Santa Cruz said. “Before, a lot of people put bad comments on my Instagram and Twitter. They said I hadn’t fought nobody and that I wasn’t a good fighter. Then, after that fight, people told me that I shut them up, that I’m a good fighter, that I go out there to fight, that I deserve to fight the best, that I’m one of the best fighters right now.

“It felt really great. It was a big relief. Before, when I heard that I hadn’t fought good fighters, it brought me a little bit down. I felt depressed or bad, hearing all those things. After that fight, when I saw those positive comments, it was a big relief. It just gave me more motivation to go out there and train harder.”

Showtime will televise the Santa Cruz-Frampton fight for Santa Cruz’s WBA super world featherweight title as the main event of a three-fight broadcast from Barclays Center (9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT).

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.