Comments Thread For: Santa Cruz-Avalos, Mares-Gutierrez Set for 10/14 at StubHub

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

The opponents are set for the tune-up fights Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares hope will lead to their rematch sometime early in 2018. The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday night that Santa Cruz will face Chris Avalos and Mares will meet Andres Gutierrez in 126-pound title fights FOX will televise October 14 from StubHub Center in Carson, California. Santa Cruz and Mares tentatively were supposed to fight again October 7 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, but their rematch was postponed because they couldn't come to a financial agreement to box in a fight Showtime was supposed to televise.
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[sammybee]

Abner has more work to do on Gutierrez than Santa on Avalos

[Boxing Logic]

Wasn't very interested in Santa Cruz - Mares since there is no context to fights involving them or Frampton anymore, because none of them will go anywhere near the top guys around their division, Russell Jr., Rigondeaux, Walters when he was at 126, Valdez, and Lomachenko, so it's impossible to judge whether they are top fighters at 126 at this stage, or just hyped up names. But you have to assume if they were good enough to be competitive with those guys, that Haymon would have made those fights, so the fact that he didn't kind of belittles these boxers and tells fans, subconsciously, that these fights aren't important because these are just the Junior Varsity boxers of the division who fight each other in semi-action fights, but are kept away from the Varsity top guys in their divisions.

It's gotten to the point where these fights sort of have the feeling of Orlando Salido vs Rocky Martinez at 130, or Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura at 130. But at least those series of actions fights were elevated in fans collective consciousness by the fact that Salido has been able to hang with top guys like Lomachenko, Marquez, and Juan Manuel Lopez in the past, signalling to fans that he and the opponents who were fighting competitively with him are of a higher quality than the average action fighters.

This series of fights between Santa Cruz, Frampton, and Mares doesn't even have that aspect to it, so in a way it's starting to feel a lot more like the Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado series of fights at 147.

To make these fights more interesting, one of these three boxers needs to actually face the top guys around his division, and do well, in order to elevate this particular series of fights. Santa Cruz has proved that he is bigger, longer, and better than Frampton and Mares overall, so he should really be the one to do that, and fight Rigondeaux or at least Gary Russell Jr.

And as for this series of fights themselves, we've already seen Santa Cruz vs. Mares, and Santa Cruz is just a little too tall, long, and big for Mares. The fight that actually would be much more interesting, and a better match size wise, among this series is Mares vs Frampton. That also happens to be the one we haven't gotten to see yet. So why didn't they just make that one?

Frampton vs. Mares, and
Gary Russell vs Santa Cruz

would make a real nice little card in the UK, and allow Mares, Russell, and Santa Cruz to make names for themselves in the UK market. Then, the winners and losers could both fight, and then repeat that process again, and you can get a lot of good fights out of that foursome, and they would actually mean a lot more to the division, and become a lot more interesting, now that one of these three has actually mixed with Russell Jr. And then if you can mix in Valdez and Rigondeaux once he moves back down to 126 after the Loma fight, you will have a really interesting division, instead of the practically dead division it's been the last two years.

That's what it should be. Mares against Frampton is the fight to make out of these three guys (including Santa Cruz). Santa Cruz already beat both of them, so he should be moving upwards to fight Russell Jr or Rigondeaux. Or Walters, Valdez, or Lomachenko. No one asked for this rematch, yet. If Mares can beat Frampton, then it becomes more interesting, but not before then.

[LOCOMEX89]

Damn.....well they both got tune ups for sure......

Both bouts shouldn't last more than 6 rounds.

[The Big Dunn]

I like Leo or but this card is bogus. Fox should have done what sho did and tell them fight each other or no tv.

[PK3434]

Eeewwwwwwww

[Afi23]

I like Leo or but this card is bogus. Fox should have done what sho did and tell them fight each other or no tv.

I can't understand why Santa Cruz felt like he needed a tuneup, for what (because Mares was ready to go)?

[bigdunny1]

what a stink fest. pointless tune ups against bums. Leo fought more recently then Mares yet he is demanding tune up and more time to rematch a fighter he already beat? SMH

[elcashanilla]

and than people say why is PBC dying this is garbage

[PACnPBFsuck]

So PBC is gonna battle itself that day, not a good look