Santa Cruz was sick before Flores fight

Leo Santa Cruz on Saturday night against Miguel Flores was victorious in convincing fashion to become four division world champion.

The match itself that was the co-main event in Las Vegas was a tactical one which left a lot to be desired by those watching.

Leo Santa Snooozzzzzze, amirite?#boxing

— Steve Kim (@StevESPNKim) November 24, 2019

We now know the reason why.

Santa Cruz after the fight expressed his displeasure into the performance.

“I’m not that happy with my performance,” Santa Cruz said during the post-fight press conference. “I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. I wanted to make a statement, but my body didn’t feel – you know, I didn’t feel myself [Saturday night]. That’s it. I don’t like putting excuses, but there was something wrong with me.”

Santa Cruz later explained that he was hit with a illness during the latter part of his training camp. Santa Cruz explained that he thought he could fight it, but it gotten worse as it became closer to fight time.

“I wasn’t injured,” Santa Cruz said. “I got a virus one week before I came to Vegas. Three days, I had chills. I had [a] fever. I had [a] cold. And that drained me. I went to a doctor. I got shots and everything because I wanted to feel a hundred percent. But when I got here, I still didn’t recover. … But like I said, I don’t like putting excuses. I didn’t wanna say nothing, but I had to.”

Sickness or not, Santa Cruz captured the WBA ‘Super” title that was left behind when Gervonta Davis moved up in weight. The build up leading into this fight was that we would see volume punching and even more than before. Once the bell rang, that wasn’t the case due to the illness but was able to outbox Flores for twelve rounds. The final scorecards in favor for Santa Cruz were 115-122, and the other two were 117-110.

White it wasn’t self admittedly his best effort, let’s see if they place a match for Santa Cruz against a bigger name in 2020 or try another step up fight for him as he settles in at fighting at 130.