Leo Santa Cruz retained the IBF Bantamweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Alberto Guevara at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
It was an entertaining fight and both guys bled, Santa Cruz from the nose and Guevara from the right eye. It was Santa Cruz work rate that prevaied over the shiftiness of Guevara which worked well at the outset.
Santa Cruz, 117 3/4 lbs of Rosemond, CA won by scores of 119-109. 118-110 and 116-112 and is now 23-0-1. Guevara, 117 1/2 lbs of Mazalton. MX is niw 16-1.
“I want to thank Al Haymon, Golden Boy and all of my supporters because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to fight on CBS,” Santa Cruz said. “I’m sorry I didn’t give as good of a show today. I felt a little different. I couldn’t breathe after the third round, so I had to breathe through my mouth. I messed up my right hand in sparring — that’s why I moved to southpaw.
“I usually throw more body shots, but he was running too much. I have been fighting a lot in the last several months and didn’t give my body enough time to rest.”
“I think I did great. I was very tough for him,” Guevara, a virtual unknown coming in, said. “Leo is very good, very tough and very strong. I know I hurt him in the 12th round, but he hurt me in the fifth.
“I said that I was going to be in there and not run around. I had to stay with my style and box. I felt like I trained for one and a half men. They called us for the fight three weeks ago.”
Errol Spence Jr. scored a third round stoppage over Richard Andrews. Spence is now 2-0 with two knockouts
