Léo Santa Cruz

Léo Santa Cruz
Data
Birth Name	Léodegario Santa Cruz
Fight name	Teremoto
Weight class	Super bantamweight
nationality	Mexican
birthday	August 10, 1988
place of birth	Huetamo
style	Left delivery
size	1.71 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	39
Victories	37
Knockout victories	19th
Defeats	1
draw	1

Léodegario Santa Cruz (born August 10, 1988 in Huetamo , Michoacán state ), better known as Léo Santa Cruz , is a Mexican professional boxer , former IBF world champion in bantamweight and former world champion of the WBC in super bantamweight, as well as former (super) world champion of the WBA in featherweight and current WBA super featherweight champion.

He is the younger brother of the former professional boxer Jose Armando Santa Cruz (* 1980), who won the 2006 interim WBC lightweight world championship.

Career

Santa Cruz lives and trains in California . As an amateur, he played between 70 and 90 fights, of which he said he lost only 8. Among other things, he won the 3rd Pan American Cadet Championships in 2004, as well as the international junior Olympics in 2004 and 2005. In the elite class (adults), he was US runner-up in 2006 before he played his first professional fight in October of the same year and was knocked out won against Pedro Silva. In his second fight in January 2007 he reached a four-round tie against Rodrigo Hernandez.

In his following 13 fights he remained undefeated. He then boxed on March 26, 2011 for the interime WBC youth bantamweight championship and won by knockout in the sixth round against the eventual European champion Stephane Jamoye (balance: 20-2). After a subsequent knockout win against ex- WBO world champion José López (39-9), he defended the title prematurely in July 2011 through tKo against Everth Briceno (33-6) from Nicaragua. In January 2012 he beat the eventual WBO interim world champion Alejandro Hernández (24-8).

On June 2, 2012 in California he finally won the IBF world bantamweight title unanimously on points against the South African Vusi Malinga (20-3) and was able to win the title in the same year through tKo against ex- WBA world champion Eric Morel (46- 3), by tKo against Victor Zaleta (20-2) and unanimously on points against Alberto Guevara (16-0).

Then he put down the title to continue fighting in the next highest super bantamweight. He won his first fight in the new weight class in May 2013 through tKo in the fifth round against the former, two-time WBA world champion Alexander Muñoz (36-4). In his next fight on August 24, 2013 in California, he won the WBC world title by knockout in the third round against Víctor Terrazas (37-2). In December he defended the title unanimously on points against Cesar Seda (25-1) from Puerto Rico.

In 2014 he defeated the three-time former world champion Cristian Mijares (49-7) and the Mexican Manuel Roman (17-2) in two further title defenses . In January 2015 his fourth defense followed by tKo against Jesus Ruiz (33-5).

In September 2015, he resigned the title to move up to featherweight. After a points victory against Jose Cayetano, he won the WBA super world title in August 2015 with another point victory against Abner Mares . In February 2016 he defended the title with a knockout against Kiko Martinez . He lost the title to Carl Frampton in July 2016 , but won it back in the rematch in January 2017.

In October 2017, he defeated Chris Avalos by knockout. In June 2018 he won against Abner Mares . He won the WBA super featherweight title on November 23, 2019 against Miguel Flores (24-2).

predecessor	Office	successor
Abner Mares	Bantamweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) June 2, 2012 - February 2013	Jamie McDonnell

predecessor	Office	successor
Víctor Terrazas	World Superbantamweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) August 25, 2013 - September 2015	Julio Ceja

predecessor	Office	successor
Nicholas Walters	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) August 29, 2015 - July 30, 2016	Carl Frampton

predecessor	Office	successor
Carl Frampton	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) January 28, 2017 -

Web links

• Overview of all Porfi fights at BoxRec
• Athlete profile at GoldenBoyPromotions