Santa Cruz vs. Mares: Old-School Slugfest Promises to Be Best PBC Bout Yet

The main event of Saturday’s Premier Boxing Champions card on ESPN is the best kind of fight that boxing has to offer and a welcome addition to the PBC lineup.

Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares will do battle at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in a non-title fight at 126 pounds. The contest isn’t about any of those glittery but sometimes arbitrary world-alphabet titles. It’s not a pay-per-view. It’s just a good, old-fashioned slugfest on basic cable television between two talented fighters with something to prove.

This one should really be something special.

Santa Cruz and Mares are decorated and accomplished fighters. There’s really no better battle for either man than with each other.

While that last point has been true for some time now and perhaps has given those who had hoped to see it happen before a reason to be less excited than they would have been otherwise, the reality of the situation dictates that Santa Cruz vs. Mares just might turn out to be 2015’s Fight of the Year.

These guys are explosive.

Eric Jamison/Associated Press

The two men are serious and dedicated offensive fighters. Santa Cruz is a whirlwind of activity. He likes to throw punches in bunches and is adept at using his long arms as a kind of shield as he plods forward to inflict damage via punch patterns that rival machine gun fire.

And Mares is the rough sort. He’s a bully who punches hard, nastily and with ill intent. He has shown a proclivity to mix it up, both from the outside and in close, and he’s faced and defeated some of the very best fighters in the business.

Both men are relatively young. Santa Cruz (27) and Mares (29) theoretically still have the best years of their lives ahead of them. They both know what it feels like to wear world title belts around their waists, and both seem intent on doing it again someday.

Santa Cruz is undefeated. At one time, he was probably one of the most popular undefeated fighters in boxing. But a string of lackluster opposition has a way of dragging a fighter’s reputation down into the mud, even if he stayed relatively spotless in the contests themselves.

If you found a hardcore boxing fan on the street today and asked him about Santa Cruz, they would likely tell you it's high time Santa Cruz fought someone with a pulse again.

Eric Jamison/Associated Press

Mares is that man. The hitter is not far removed from fighting one of the toughest schedules in recent boxing history.

From 2010 to 2013, he faced a murderers' row of opponents and frankly exceeded expectations. He defeated Yonnhy Perez, Vic Darchinyan, Joseph Agbeko (twice), Anselmo Moreno and Daniel Ponce De Leon before being permanently separated from the land of the undefeated—as well as temporarily separated from his senses—by a Round 1 Jhonny Gonzalez storm.

Both men need a win if they hope to figure into an increasingly interesting featherweight boxing scene that includes fellow Al Haymon-managed fighters Gary Russell Jr. and Jesus Cuellar.

In fact, a round robin between those four 126-pounders would be something special for PBC—especially if Santa Cruz vs. Mares turns out to be the barnburner everyone expects.

And it should.

Both Santa Cruz and Mares possess the exact kind of temperament that usually leads to something combustible. Both need the win. Neither is the kind of man who likes to take a step back.

At least on paper, the fight promises to be the best PBC bout to date, a compelling slugfest between two young and talented fighters hoping to etch their names in the pantheon of boxing lore.

Here’s some free advice about the fight: Don’t miss it.