By Carlos Boogs
Leo "El Terremoto" Santa Cruz (30-0-1, 17 KOs) will be looking to close the show when he finally faces his Los Angeles rival Abner Mares (29-1-1, 15 KOs) on Saturday, August 29th in the Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN main event from the Staples Center in LA.
The fight has been building for a very long time. Mares' stunning knockout loss to Jhonny Gonzalez in 2013 pushed the fight back. Mares has won his last three and hopes to get a win over Santa Cruz to regain some of the footing he lost with the Gonzalez loss.
Santa Cruz has other ideas. He's been looking forward to this fight for a long time and a victory on the scorecards is not enough for him. He wants to knock Mares out inside the distance.
"My mindset is to look spectacular, to go in there and stop him. I want to go out there, leave everything in the ring and look spectacular. If we get the victory, I'll be happy with that but I want to look better than [just getting a win]. [When I think about how the fight will play out], we're standing toe to toe, banging each other's bodies. I see myself on top of him, working the body and I see myself stopping him in the late rounds," Santa Cruz told BoxingScene.com.