WBA Confirms Santa Cruz Will Remain At Featherweight, Commits To Facing Wood-Conlan Winner

TAMPA – Leo Santa Cruz is prepared to play by the rules to retain his current title status.

BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the four-division and reigning WBA “Super” featherweight beltholder has complied with a mandate to inform the sanctioning body of his plans at the weight. A previous ruling called for Santa Cruz to inform by December 13 of whether he planned to remain at featherweight and properly defend his belt or if he were to remain at junior lightweight in which case he would have been forced to vacate.

The latter move would have meant that England’s Leigh Wood (25-2, 15KOs) would have received an upgrade from his current WBA “World” secondary featherweight title status ahead of his mandatory title defense versus Belfast’s Michael Conlan (16-0, 8KOs). That bout—which still awaits a fight date—will maintain its present stakes, with the promise of the winner getting a crack at the main title.

“Leo Santa Cruz honored our request to clarify his current position,” Gilberto Jesus Mendoza, longtime WBA president told BoxingScene.com while ringside for a Showtime Pay-Per-View event at AMALIE Arena in Tampa. “We can confirm that Leo will enter a voluntary title defense and has expressed his interest and commitment to facing the winner of Conlan and Wood.”

Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19KOs) has not fought at featherweight since a twelve-round win over Ricardo Rivera in February 2019. Two fights have since followed, both at junior lightweight where he won a WBA title in a decision victory over Miguel Flores before losing that belt in a sixth-round knockout at the heavy hands of Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (26-0, 24KOs) last Halloween in San Antonio.

The knockout loss is since followed by a lengthy inactive stretch and—prior to this past Saturday—uncertainty over his next move. Santa Cruz will now return to the ring February 5, as part of a recently announced Fox Sports Pay-Per-View event. The show is headlined by former welterweight champ Keith Thurman who ends a 2 ½ year ring absence to face former secondary junior welterweight titlist Mario Barrios who moves up in weight.

Santa Cruz serves as the evening’s chief support, as he faces Phoenix’s Keenan Carbajal (23-2-1, 15KOs). The terms of the bout were not revealed, though Carbajal—who has won his last 18 fights—is a career featherweight but not currently ranked in the WBA Top 15.

In the event that Santa Cruz fails to honor any part of his commitment to the WBA order, the title will be declared vacant with the winner of Wood-Conlan recognized as the sanctioning body’s lone titlist. The much-needed shift in business practice is part of the the WBA’s aggressive title reduction policy rolled out earlier this summer.  

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox