Josh Warrington Very Motivated To Fight Leo Santa Cruz in United States

IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington is still eager to have a unification showdown with WBA champion Leo Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz holds the WBA’s ‘super title’ at 126-pounds, while Leigh Wood is the “regular” champion.

Warrington recently reclaimed the IBF strap with a knockout of Kiko Martinez. During the big win, Warrington suffered a fractured jaw that is currently healing up.

Santa Cruz has not defended the featherweight title, or fought in the weight class, since 2019. His last three fights took place super featherweight.

Some critics have called for the WBA to strip Santa Cruz and stamp Wood as the sole champion at 126.

He last fought in February with a lopsided ten round unanimous decision win over Keenan Carbajal. It was Santa Cruz’s first bout since suffering a brutal knockout loss to Gervonta Davis in 2020.

Domestically, the bigger fight is a battle between Warrington and Wood.

But Warrington would love to follow in the footsteps of Ricky Hatton by traveling overseas to compete in the United States with someone like Santa Cruz.

“I’ve said for a long time I want to go to the States and emulate what Ricky Hatton has done, going over to Vegas and New York, places like that,” Warrington told Talk Sport.

“[Santa Cruz] is a big name, a household name and he was a world champion well before I was. When I won the world title, the names being thrown about were Gary Russell Jr, Leo Santa Cruz and Oscar Valdez. Obviously Valdez has moved up and Gary has recently been beat, but Santa Cruz is still hanging about at featherweight. A lot of my followers know who Santa Cruz is and he’s a bit of a name over in the States so it would work.”