Golden Boy and Don King are getting together to host a boxing card on Jan. 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas that features two world title bouts. The main event is the WBC World Heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Bermane Stiverne that right now sees Wilder a (-140) favorite over the title holder Stiverne, who returns (+120).
The second world title bout features WBS Super Bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz, as he faces veteran Jesus Ruiz (33-5-5). This one is no where near as close at the books as the Stiverne-Wilder match as Santa Cruz comes in a huge favorite (-4800) over Ruiz, who comes back at (+1600). There is no over/under yet for either fight.
For fans of Santa Cruz, this fight comes as a little bit of a dissappointment, as he sits in a crowded weight class tht has undergone a lot of recent change at the top, as a lot of fighters and movement occured at Super bantamweight in 2014. Through it all, Santa Cruz has remained firmly in the top five of the weight class and he has a perfect (28-0-1) and he has already made three defenses of the title he won back in August of 2013. Now one of the other big names at that weight, Guillermo Rigondeaux, just fought last week, so Santa Cruz is taking a soft fight while the two get their schedules together makes sense, if they make the fight.
But this is another soft fight on a big, attention-getting card for Santa Cruz. In his September fight, he was on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Marcos Maidana rematch, and that was a match with a huge line where he outclassed his opponent.
The WBA version of the world title is held by the UK’s Scott Quigg, and he last fought in November and is awaiting an opponent. The IBF title holder is Britain’s Carl Frampton and he is booked to fight in late February. Jesus Ruiz has no real shot at breaking up this party, Sant Cruz needs to do his job and then make one of the bigger fights out there, as outside of the top four guys in the weight class (Santa Cruz, Rigondeaux,Quigg and Frampton) there is a drop off in “big fight” possibilities.
Below is a short video of Leo Santa Cruz after his latest outing against Manuel Roman in September of last year:
