Via Charles Brun: WBA ‘Super World’ featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz and 126-lb ‘regular’ WBA champion Leigh Wood were asked by the World Boxing Association Wednesday to begin negotiations to merge the two titles. into one.
WBA will give Sana Cruz (38-2-1, 19) and Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) 30 days to negotiate the fight before depositing.
Should the fight between 33-year-old Santa Cruz and Wood go ahead, the winner would keep the WBA’s sole title at 126th.
It’s unclear if Santa Cruz would choose to fight British boxer Wood, as he hasn’t defended his WBA ‘Super World’ title since the win. Rafael Rivera three years ago in February 2019.
Kindness knows why the WBA didn’t strip Santa Cruz of the 126 lb ‘Super World’ title after all this time without defending it.
Ideally, the titles should be defended at least once a year, but somehow San Cruz was allowed to keep her WBA title without being stripped.
Why did Santa Cruz keep his WBA title for three years if he wasn’t interested in defending it? It has no meaning.
Even if Santa Cruz fought Wood and beat him, the WBA should still disqualify him long ago to give other fighters a chance to fight for the ‘Super World’ title.
With Wood being such an unknown fighter to the average boxing fan in the United States, it probably wasn’t worth the fight for former four-division world champion Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz could quickly drop his 126-lb ‘Super World’ WBA title, which could lead to the sanctioning body recognizing Wood as the only WBA champion by default that he doesn’t need have to fight anyone.
Wood will be on the field after the knockout victory in round 12 Michael Conlan last month on March 12 in Nottingham, England.
Conlan beat the unlucky Wood’s daylight through the first ten rounds before making it past the eleventh round and being stopped in the twelfth round.
Building on that terrifying performance from Wood, Santa Cruz beat him like drums to become the sole 126-lb WBA champion. The question is whether it is worthwhile for Santa Cruz to join the fight.
Santa Cruz will become Wood’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing would be happy if he vacated the WBA ‘Super World’ title so his boxer could become the sole champion with sanctioning body.
Wood won’t be appreciated as the only champion with the WBA by default, but I’m sure he won’t create too much trouble.
Santa Cruz can fight a lot of famous champions and more talented contenders than Wood and won’t have to worry about his ability to fight in the UK in front of Leigh’s fans in Nottingham.
Santa Cruz will have a unanimous decision in the 10th round defeat to Keenan Carbajal (23-3-1, 15 KOs) on February 5 at the Michelob Center in Las Vegas.
This is Santa Cruz’s first game since suffering a sixth knockout loss to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in October 2020.
Santa Cruz is the world better than Wood, a basic fighter who wins his matches by beating his opponents.
Wood has a nice little straight arm to prevent opponents from getting close to him.
He wouldn’t get away with that illegal action if he were to play Santa Cruz in the US, as the umpires wouldn’t allow that tactic. Santa Cruz is a much better boxer than Conlan, and that guy almost beat Wood.
