Leo Santa Cruz vs. Manuel Roman: Fight Time, Date, TV Info and More

The main undercard bout for the rematch between pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Rene Maidana features WBC super bantamweight champion Leo "Terremoto" Santa Cruz. 

Santa Cruz will face former sparring partner Manuel Roman. 

One look at the odds, per OddsShark.com, tells you just how highly favored the champion is in this one. Santa Cruz is listed as a -10000 favorite.

While this is the fight that will likely go on before the main event, it may not be the most competitive undercard bout. Still, Santa Cruz is one of the more exciting young fighters in the world. You may very well get an opportunity to see him put on a show.

It all begins at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 13, and it broadcasts exclusively on Showtime pay-per-view.

Low Risk, Low Reward

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If Santa Cruz doesn't dominate Roman on Saturday night, his stock will drop among knowledgeable folks in the boxing community. With all due respect to Roman, there is no way Santa Cruz's team would put him in the ring with a former sparring partner who had ever caused the champion any real problems.

Terremoto is expected to demolish his opponent, and if he doesn't, it'll be seen as a bad performance. 

After this fight is done—assuming Santa Cruz takes care of business—there are a ton of options available for him. He could take on WBA super and WBO champion Guillermo Rigondeaux if the Golden Boy-Top Rank issue can be resolved.

Santa Cruz could also meet newly crowned IBF champion Carl Frampton or regular WBA champion Scott Quigg—assuming the latter beats Stephane Jamoye earlier in the day on Saturday.

The plethora of potentially lucrative fights on the horizon likely explains why Santa Cruz and his team were so safe picking an opponent.

Looking For a Miracle

Against enormous odds and a champion as talented as Santa Cruz, Roman's chances to pull the monumental upset don't look very good. Roman is vastly inexperienced, having only fought in two fights scheduled for 10 rounds in his career. 

He's had just five less fights than Santa Cruz, but the champion has held a world title since 2012. 

It's difficult to quantify just how much of an edge in experience that gives him. Roman is on a two-fight win streak, but the last opponent he defeated was Jose Silveira, and he came in with a 15-10 record.

Many are envisioning another one-sided blowout similar to the one we saw a few weeks ago when Danny Garcia viciously knocked out Rod Salka in the second round.

Dan Ambrose of Boxing News 24 writes: 

"

We’re basically talking about Danny Garcia vs. Rod Salka 2 in the Santa Cruz v. Roman fight, because this is the same kind of situation.

Like Salka, Roman fights in a division below Santa Cruz at bantamweight instead of super bantamweight. The main difference between Salka and Roman is that Roman is ranked #13 by the WBC, so he’s just barely ranked in the top [15]. He’s a fringe contender.

"

Is Roman in for a short night of work?

Prediction

Unless Santa Cruz experiences a serious letdown, he'll finish Roman within three rounds. This is a huge mismatch, and one can only hope Roman doesn't have to take too much punishment en route to receiving what will probably amount to his biggest payday in the sport.

Santa Cruz will win by KO.

Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter. I dig boxing and MMA.