Poor Management Is Making Leo Santa Cruz's Potential Go Unrealized

We really want to buy into Leo Santa Cruz.

Honest.

The 27-year-old three-division champ is one of the most affable and down-to-earth guys you’ll find in an industry where the goal is to maximize your earnings by placing your fists upside another man’s skull.

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times did a fascinating piece earlier this week on the Mexican fighter, who lives in Southern California, where he details how fame and fortune haven’t much changed his lifestyle or his enjoyment of the simpler things in life.

It tells about how Santa Cruz continues to shop at local outdoor markets and patronize food carts in Los Angeles, something that seems everyman for a guy who earned over a cool million bucks for his last in-ring outing.

“I still feel like the same person I was growing up,” Santa Cruz said, per Pugmire. “I miss those places. I like going back.”

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Santa Cruz’s relatability and exciting style form a solid one-two punch in boxing’s never-ending game of superstar creation. It doesn’t hurt that he hails from a fighting-crazed nation that has produced dozens of world champions and more than a few legends.

But Santa Cruz, unlike his compatriot Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, hasn’t been able to reach up and fully grasp that brass ring. It seems that his potential, massively hyped just a couple of years back, has stalled a bit.

His marketing ability will get a big test when he headlines a card Saturday night in Anaheim, California, defending his WBA Featherweight Championship against former super bantamweight titlist Kiko Martinez.

He understands the stakes here.

“I’m feeling some pressure. I’m hoping a lot of people will come watch me,” he said, per Pugmire.

And there’s the rub.

Hoping?

A fighter like Santa Cruz, competing in a region of the country that should be gold for a Mexican-American fighter with a high-octane style, shouldn't be hoping to put butts in the seats.

The Martinez fight, ironically, since it’s what we’re all worrying about, highlights exactly why Santa Cruz needs to hope that people come out to support him rather than knowing it’s in the bag.

Martinez was a solid super bantamweight. He won a world title down there with an upset blitzing of Jhonatan Romero on HBO in 2013, but he’s clearly a spent force and moving up to a neighborhood where he’s done nothing to earn a championship opportunity.

He’s been dominated in his last three high-profile bouts, dropping a pair of contests (the first by knockout) to Carl Frampton before being demolished in two rounds by Scott Quigg last year.

All he has to show for himself since are a triad of wins over nondescript foes in his native Spain.

Martinez being chosen as a foe for Santa Cruz, especially as the follow-up performance coming just months after a critic-silencing win over longtime rival Abner Mares, places the problem right out front for all to see.

The guy is just managed poorly by Al Haymon.

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Per Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook, Martinez feels that the whole world is sleeping on him. He promises to come forward all night long and walk out of the Honda Center with a new piece of shiny hardware.

That’s the disaster scenario for Santa Cruz and his team, but you’d be able to count on one hand the number of people (outside Martinez’s camp) who feel there’s any realistic possibility that happens.

It’s a blah matchup, which, unfortunately, has characterized far too many of Santa Cruz’s recent outings.

Before taking an exciting-but-clear decision win over Mares, who himself was viewed as something of a diminished fighter in his recent contests, Santa Cruz operated in the boxing equivalent of the witness protection program.

He fought mainly on undercards of Floyd Mayweather Jr. pay-per-views, which (to take the risk of blowing up the comments section) attracted as many non-boxing fans as boxing fans, if not more, and saw him matched against no-hopers and nobodies.

It’s hard to build a market and demand for a fighter when you’re constantly showcasing him against subpar opposition to people who are there for the show, not the fight, and probably won’t be there next time around.

And it’s even harder when you cash in off the biggest win of a fighter’s career with a fight that absolutely nobody wanted and will likely have a predictable, prove-nothing ending.

Santa Cruz has the talent and personality to be a star.

He’s likable and relatable.

But this business plan is going to have to change if he’ll ever get there.