The anticipated rematch between WBA featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares will no longer take place on October 7th. The fight was meant to “unify” Cruz’s belt and Mares’s illegitimate version of the same title, but that will not be happening as of now. Money is being cited as the culprit.
Leo Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) and Abner Mares (30-2-1, 15 KOs) originally fought two years ago in a contest that Santa Cruz won by a nonsense majority decision. Two of the scorecards rightly came back wide for the three division titleholder, but the third came back an absurd draw that Abner Mares did not deserve. Santa Cruz clearly won the contest.
From that perspective, this was an entirely unnecessary rematch anyway. It was only going to take place because the WBA was going to order it to happen in order to unify their “super” and “regular” titles at the weight, typical WBA stuff. I for one would much rather see Leo Santa Cruz complete his trilogy with Carl Frampton, a series that is currently scored even at one fight each.
Apparently the two sides could not agree on the money split. Furthermore, it is being reported that Leo Santa Cruz and his team wanted the two to fight tune ups on the same card in October and then to meet in early 2018 instead. Showtime was supposedly not interested in this, however. It is unclear what the WBA’s move here will be, but they were near ordering a purse bid not too long ago before the camps claimed that they didn’t need one to work out the fight.
