Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2016-02-27, fast and furious start, high pace and spectacular exchanges: Leo Santa Cruz vs Kiko Martinez was an authentic war and it gets five stars; this is the first candidate for the boxing Fight of the Year 2016!The undefeated world champion in three different weight classes Leo Santa Cruz entered this fight with a professional record of 31-0-1 (17 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.1 featherweight in the world. He fought three times last year beating Jesus Ruiz (=Santa Cruz vs Ruiz), Jose Cayetano (=Santa Cruz vs Cayetano) and Abner Mares (=Santa Cruz vs Mares).
His opponent, the former Ibf super-Bw champion Kiko Martinez, has a boxing record of 35-6-0 (26 knockouts) and he entered as the No.16 in the same weight class. He fought four times in 2015 losing to Scott Quigg (=Quigg vs Martinez) but then he won three consecutive bouts. Santa Cruz vs Martinez is valid for the WBA Super World featherweight title. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2016-02-27
Where: Honda Center, Anaheim, California, USA
Division: featherweight (126 lbs, 57.2 kg)
Title: WBA Super World featherweight title
Santa Cruz’s previous fight: Leo Santa Cruz vs Abner Mares
Santa Cruz’s next fight: Leo Santa Cruz vs Carl Frampton
Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Rutube.ru and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Official highlights
I would not bet on Santa Cruz against Lomachenko.
Would like to see that fight though.
Russel Jr. – I would lean toward Santa Cruz as I think he uses his height and length. Russel likes short compact punches. Dont think Cruzes people will wont him on the inside at all.
Caballero might be a good fight by end of year.
5 star fight right here.
Yo no habria parado la pelea ya que leo era mas empuje que golpes claros;otra muestra de que es un campeon de papel en una pelea con un autentico boxeador y dentro de la peor asociacion:AMB.
Kiko was in a state of mind in which he could’ve probably beaten almost anyone. I have rarely seen such determination and until the end, I really thought he could still turn that tide with one clean punch. But Santa Cruz responded with great wit and guts as well.
When Santa Cruz’ gloves touched the canevas in the 2nd round, it certainly was a knockdown. Kiko’s right hook caught him on the top of the head and on the replay, you can see he was already off balance when Kiko’s left hook kind of pushed him to the ground. A flash knockdown, but still a knockdown in my opinion.
But anyway, this fight was very exciting. 5 stars no doubt about it.
Yep, agree with you, the second round thing was a knockdown.
Agreed on the knock down.
Kiko completely forgot about defense, made for an entertaining fight but he never really had a chance with his strategy.
Not the most competitive fight … but great heart shown by Kiko