No Holds Barred: Santa Cruz Stars in PBC's Biggest Triumph

(Photos by Suzanne Teresa, Premier Boxing Champions)

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the Leo Santa Cruz-Abner Mares and Julio Ceja-Hugo Ruiz fights on the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) card from the Staples Center in Los Angeles held Saturday, August 29. This card was shown live in the U.S. on ESPN.

In the main event, Santa Cruz (31-0-1, 17 KOs) won a majority decision over Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs) in a 12-round featherweight fight. In this incredible fight, over 2000 punches were thrown, with Santa Cruz landing 373 of 1057 thrown, and Mares landing 227 of 980 thrown.

In the co-feature, Julio Ceja (30-1, 27 KOs) rebounded from a third-round knockdown to win by TKO over Hugo Ruiz (35-2, 30 KOs) at 2:34 of the fifth round in their super bantamweight fight.

We discuss why this fight makes Santa Cruz a major star and top pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, how this was PBC's best show since they started running in March of this year, why PBC need better announcing, and much more.

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The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

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