Leo Santa Cruz vs Leigh Wood purse bid scheduled for August 12th

The ongoing Leo Santa Cruz vs Leigh Wood saga looks to have a firm deadline, as the WBA has scheduled a purse bid for August 12th with a $150,000 minimum.

There is, however, a major hurdle: the 75/25 split in Santa Cruz’s (38-2-1, 19 KO) favor, which he gets by virtue of being the “super” champ as opposed to Wood’s (26-2, 16 KO) “world” title. Eddie Hearn has said he’s appealing it, and I’m inclined to support him in this endeavor; Santa Cruz hasn’t even fought at 126 in more than three years, and he just recently attempted to sidestep Wood in favor of chasing WBC champ Rey Vargas.

Seeing as the WBA’s favoritism towards Cruz is among the most blatant in the sport, to the point where they allowed him to fight a sub-100-ranked featherweight for their “super” super featherweight belt, I don’t imagine they’ll amend the split.

Out of curiosity, I actually went back to the WBA’s rankings at the time. Flores didn’t appear on their July rankings at 130. By the time their August rankings came around, he was ranked second, just in time for Santa Cruz to move up leapfrog “world” champ Andrew Cancio.

Odds are that Wood walks away, which will likely result in him being stripped. Eddie Hearn has stated that he wants to pit Wood against Josh Warrington, who’s slated to return later this year against mandatory challenger Luis Alberto Lopez. In the meantime, Kiko Martinez and Mauricio Lara are reportedly in the running to fight Wood next month. Hoping for the latter, but making my peace with the former.