Leo Santa Cruz, Abner Mares meet to decide SoCal supremacy (The Associated Press)
No championship belt is at stake when Leo Santa Cruz steps into the Staples Center ring to take on Abner Mares. Santa Cruz (30-0-1, 17 KOs) risks his unbeaten record against Mares (29-1-1, 15 KOs) on Saturday night in a tantalizing featherweight matchup between two fighters with numerous similarities. Both were born in Mexico and grew up in the Los Angeles area, and they occasionally sparred in training as they built their parallel careers to world-class levels over the past decade.