Mijares Vs. Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz should walk him down and outwork him pretty convincingly

 

They are all pretty much done.

Canelo Alverez vs. Alfredo Angula
Leo Santa Cruz will be fighting Christian Mijares.
Omar Figueroa vs. Ricardo Alverez (Canelo's Older Brother)
Nihito Arakawa vs. Jorge Linares

 

I'm a huge fan of El Diamante, so I'm glad he is finally getting the payday he was nearly screwed out of with the Terrazas robbery.

That said, LSC is going to grind him into dust and end his career in brutal fashion. :verysad

 

I hope LSC wins to set up a showdown with Carl Frampton this summer.

 

Interesting you make that point, Buttsy.
Once again LSC is facing a compromised opponent. All he faces is old, shopworn, worn out, blown up guys from lighter weight classes.
When are we going to see Leo take on a live one, eh?

Guess who I have in mind!

 

I'm yet to be convinced that a prime Frampton is all that much greater a threat for LSC than a faded Mijares. :yep

 

That's the story of most champions, LSC vs Rigondeaux not happening so Mijares for now

 

Not nearly as impressed with LSC as many on here, apparently. He's tough and fundamentally sound, but he'd not a killer puncher nor is he especially quick handed.

Ringo beats him easily, and he hasn't shown me anything to suggest he's out of Frampton's league.

 

Don't underestimate those qualities. Not everybody needs to be slick or fast-handed to be highly effective at even the elite tier.

As for being a killer puncher, well that's in the way that he is habituated to execute his game. He throws high volume, it's his thing. He deliberately lessens up and doesn't sit down on everything so he can throw more of it and with fewer gaps in between. Most people haven't been following LSC for very long so I've seen a lot of comments about his power being average or even below. Not so. When he sits down on shots, trust me, he does have 1-punch KO power. That just isn't what he is setting out to do. His goal is to drown you in leather applying steady educated pressure working the body and head - and that's what he does. He lets the natural heaviness of his hands show through in the accumulated damage that goes along with his nonstop persistent attack. I would say he is pound-for-pound heavier-handed than prime Margarito, or than Rios is now. (Rios loads up on more bombs and thus comes across more like a KO artist, but he does also fall in love with volume swatting and battering foes down with heavy-handed spray-n-pray...the major difference being that Rios is usually wild and sloppy while LSC is controlled and purposeful...)

I think perhaps the most intriguing thing about Rigondeaux vs. Santa Cruz is that despite his ring IQ we might see Rigondeaux fall for the oldest trick in the book...the original okey-doke. Slap-slap-slap-BANG! "Where did that come from? Why am I lying down, with some cat waving salts in my grill?"

Rigondeaux would have a field day at first with Santa Cruz trudging forward with softball lobs, batting close to a thousand with counter-punchers while outmaneuvering him. Sooner or later, though, he will get tired from the relentless pace and/or complacent and feel he can risk a bit less movement, because "Nah, his punches ain't that hard...I can stand to absorb a couple and give my legs a reprieve" - and that is when he and the doubters will discover just how light a hitter LSC isn't.









As far as Mijares is concerned, I love the dude and have been stoked to see him nip and tuck his way back into contention after that nasty skid that began with being KTFO by Darchinyan and continued with back to back robbery losses to Cermeno. Stopping the last remotely good version of Rafa Marquez and then outmatching Terrazas (but getting screwed on the cards once more) showed his amazing longevity and resiliency after such a long road with so many twists and turns in the last decade. Even so, his peak was down at super fly, and LSC is not only bigger and stronger but I'd say a better overall fighter in 2014 than was Darchinyan in 2008. They're completely different looks stylistically and different stances (and Mijares was actually still near the height of his game back in '08; Darchinyan was just a sip of the wrong poison...styles make fights...) but LSC brings tons of pressure and Mijares can't navigate the ring consistently all night quite like he used to...and unlike with VD will be giving up advantages in both height and reach making him that much easier to walk down and grind up. Eventually they're going to scrap up close and when they do, Cristian is just too small, too old, and too run down in spite of having shown really nice form and refusing to go quietly into that goodnight lately.

 

"As for being a killer puncher, well that's in the way that he is habituated to execute his game. He throws high volume, it's his thing. He deliberately lessens up and doesn't sit down on everything so he can throw more of it and with fewer gaps in between. Most people haven't been following LSC for very long so I've seen a lot of comments about his power being average or even below. Not so. When he sits down on shots, trust me, he does have 1-punch KO power. That just isn't what he is setting out to do. His goal is to drown you in leather applying steady educated pressure working the body and head - and that's what he does. He lets the natural heaviness of his hands show through in the accumulated damage that goes along with his nonstop persistent attack. I would say he is pound-for-pound heavier-handed than prime Margarito, or than Rios is now. (Rios loads up on more bombs and thus comes across more like a KO artist, but he does also fall in love with volume swatting and battering foes down with heavy-handed spray-n-pray...the major difference being that Rios is usually wild and sloppy while LSC is controlled and purposeful...)"

You can over-analyse about LSCs power all you want , Buttsy. You make it sound as if Leo deliberately prolongs his fights by choice, almost as if it is some kind of recreational exercise he is engaging in. Personally I prefer to think the truth is a lot simpler. If Leo isn't koing these weak old smaller opponents -It's because he can't. Simple as, end of.
Any boxer I ever heard of would rather carry a sack of coal up a mountain than prolong a fight one minute longer than necessary.

Compare and contrast with Carl, whose last two opponents are big strong young fresh natural super bantams. Two clean kos. One with the left, one with the right. One to the head, one to the body.
When are we going to see some of THAT from Leo, eh?

If Leo was able to, he would be doing similar. Particularly against the physically frailer guys he is facing. He isn't - not by choice, but simply because he can't.


Of course I do realise that power is one factor that comes into it, but nevertheless let's not beat around the bush. Frampton is the puncher here, not LSC.