By John MacDonald

World super bantamweight titlists Scott Quigg 28-0-2 (21 KOs) and Leo Santa Cruz 27-0 (15 KOs) will be defending their WBA “regular” and WBC straps respectively on September 13 but Quigg’s promoter, Eddie Hearn revealed to BoxingScene.com that the Mexican tuned down the opportunity to face his unbeaten charge.

Quigg will headline at the Phones4U Arena, Manchester against former WBO bantamweight champion, Paulus Ambunda. The challenger brings a 21-1 (10 KOs) record to the ring with his sole defeat coming by way of a competitive decision loss to Tomoki Kameda last year.

Two-weight title holder, Santa Cruz will be making the third defence of the title he won by stopping Victor Terrazas in three rounds, on the undercard of the rematch between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana. Hearn approached Goldenboy Promotions with a view to matching the unbeaten pair on that bill, only to have his approach rejected.

“The Quigg situation has been quite frustrating because we were desperate to make the Leo Santa Cruz fight after his comments regarding the fight but the feedback has been abysmal,” Hearn told BoxingScene.

“I knew they wouldn’t come over here but I still put the question out there. I’ve told Golden Boy time and time again ‘We will come to America, not a problem.’ Even 2 or 3 days ago I spoke to Robert Diaz [Golden Boy Matchmaker] while tying up some things for [Shawn] Porter-[Kell] Brook and I said ‘Look whose Leo Santa Cruz fighting? If you need us on Sept 13 we are there’. We've seen so many quotes from him saying he wants to fight Quigg, [Carl] Frampton and even [Gullermo] Rigondeaux - I don't think he has the intention of fighting any of them. It will be interesting to see who he does choose on September 13. He is a quality fighter – let’s hope we can get the quality fights made"