Leo Santa Cruz has been ordered to fight Leigh Wood next

Leo Santa Cruz has been ordered to face Leigh Wood next by the World Boxing Association. The possibility of a unification bout between Santa Cruz and Rey Vargas is in peril.

Leo Santa Cruz is the WBA Super Featherweight Champion and Wood is the WBA Regular Featherweight Champion. The WBA, like other boxing sanctioning bodies, has garnered criticism for the amount of world champions that it has. The president of the WBA, Gilberto Mendoza, has said that he wants to reduce the number of belts in the association. Ordering a fight between the two champions aligns with that policy.

Along with ‘regular’ and ‘super’ champions, the WBA has, at times, had three different world champions in a division, with an ‘interim’ one too.

Santa Cruz has not defended his WBA Championship since 2019 in a unanimous decision victory over Miguel Flores. The Mexican has fought twice since then. The first bout was a sixth-round stoppage defeat to Gervonta Davis in 2020. Two years later, he recorded a straightforward unanimous decision victory over Keenan Carbajal.

Leigh Wood unexpectedly became the WBA Regular Super Featherweight Champion by defeating Can Xu in 2021. Xu was the clear favorite for the bout, but Wood was in control of the entire showdown and stopped the champion in the final round.

‘Leigh-that’ was once again underdog in the defense of his title against Michael Conlan. The bookmakers seemed to have gotten the fight right as Wood was dropped in the first round of the bout. Conlan looked to be in control until Wood knocked down the challenger in the eleventh round.

Then in the final round, needing a knockout to retain his championship, Wood knocked Conlan out of the ring, stopping his opponent. The performance was labeled one of the greatest comebacks in boxing.

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Leo Santa Cruz wanted to face Rey Vargas next.

Instead of facing Leigh Wood, Leo Santa Cruz was interested in a unification bout with WBC Featherweight Champion Rey Vargas. Vargas became a two-weight world champion after defeating Mark Magsayo in July 2022.

Instead, a unification bout will not be possible as the WBA have given Santa Cruz 24 hours to agree to a fight or to be stripped of his championship.