WBA ‘Super Champion’ Leo Santa Cruz and WBA ‘regular champion ‘Leigh Wood have been ordered by the World Boxing Association to begin negotiations in a move to reduce the number of titles from two to one.
Santa Cruz and Wood have 30 days to hammer out a deal before a purse bid. If the fight happens, it would be an exciting one between two brawlers with nonstop action from start to finish.
With Wood’s face forward style of fighting, Santa Cruz would have the ideal opponent to showcase his incredible talent. Wood is made to order for a fighter like Santa Cruz, and it might be one of the easiest fights in years for the former four-division world champion.
However, this may be a pointless move on the WBA’s part because Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs) has bigger fish to fry than being reduced to fighting Wood, a virtually unknown fighter in the United States.
With the bit of time that the 33-year-old Santa Cruz has in his career, he’s more likely to dump his WBA 126-lb title and focus on going after the money fights against fighters the American fans want to see him fight. Wood, unfortunately, is not high on the list for boxing fans in the U.S to see Santa Cruz fight.
What makes a fight between Santa Cruz and Wood even less likely to happen is that if a deal couldn’t be put together in the 30-day negotiation period, it would go to a purse bid, and the British fighter’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing will go all out to win that purse bid.
If Hearn wins the bid, Santa Cruz would be stuck having to fight Wood in his backyard in Nottingham, England.
Under normal circumstances, Santa Cruz would likely easily dominate Wood (26-2, 16 KOs) without any issues. Still, with the fight in Nottingham, there would be concerns about whether Leo might find himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision.
Wood took a real beating in his last fight against Michael Conlan before coming on to stop him in the 12th round last March in Nottingham. The crowd got Wood back in the battle after he was totally dominated by Conlan through the first ten rounds of the fight.
If Santa Cruz fights Wood, it’s going to be a terribly punishing fight for Leigh because he won’t stop coming and will get hammered. This isn’t the ideal fight for Wood, coming off his grueling battle against Conlan.
What Wood should be taking is a nice easy tune-up so he can recover from the punishment Conlan dished out against him because Santa Cruz is a much bigger puncher than anyone he’s faced before.
