Saturday’s SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING Telecast Will Replay As Follows:
Sunday, Dec. 15 at 9 a.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME
Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME
Available on SHOWTIME ON DEMAND & SHOWTIME ANYTIME beginning Sunday, Dec. 15
Undefeated Leo “El Terremoto” Santa Cruz, making the first defense of his Super Bantamweight World title, won a close and hard-fought unanimous decision over Puerto Rico’s Cesar Seda.
Working behind a piston-like jab and a multitude of power punches, Santa Cruz won the bout on the strength of his trademark volume punching. He sent Seda down in the fifth round, a flash knockdown, but nonetheless it was only the second time Seda had been down in his career.
Seda kept the bout close, fighting well while backing up from the perpetual charge of Santa Cruz. At times, Seda got good work done on the ropes. But in the end, as has been the case with all of Santa Cruz’s prior challengers, his work-rate proved to be too much. SHOStats recorded Santa Cruz landing 297 total punches of 829 thrown; 197 of 454 power punches; and 100 of 375 jabs.
Scores were 116-111, 115-112, 117-110 as Santa Cruz improves to 26-0-1, 15 KO’s. A two-division world champion has now fought eight times in the less than two years, including six world championship fights.
“He was a tough guy,” said Santa Cruz, a Mexican now living and fighting out of Los Angeles. “I am sorry to San Antonio that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. I wanted to give a better fight. Next time I’ll try to do better.”
[Regarding when he might return to the ring] Santa Cruz said, “I feel good. The sooner, the better for me. I want to stay at 122. Maybe spend next year at 122 and we’ll see after that. I thank San Antonio for their support. This is a lovely city. I have wanted to come to fight here for a long time and I am glad we did.”
Of Seda, Hall of Fame analyst Al Bernstein said near the end of the bout, “Seda may be better off in the 118-pound division because he has shown some tremendous talent in this fight. He’s just in there against a bigger and stronger man in Santa Cruz.”
“I thought I won the fight,” said Seda, now 25-2, 17 KO’s. “The knockdown was not a knockdown. We had our legs tangled. This decision was a robbery.”
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
