Leo Santa Cruz was Leo Santa Cruz on Saturday night.
The former four-division titleholder, who was knocked out by Gervonta Davis in his most-recent fight, outworked Keenan Carbajal to win a shutout decision in a 10-round junior lightweight bout on the Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios card in Las Vegas.
Santa Cruz (38-2-1, 19 KOs) went to work at the opening bell and never let up, pounding Carbajal’s body incessantly and mixing in plenty of shots to the head in spite of a cut above his right eye.
Carbajal (23-3-1, 15 KOs) was resilient — he was never hurt significantly — and had some good moments. However, he couldn’t keep pace with Santa Cruz’s vaunted work rate.
Plus, Carbajal began to complain that his left arm was injured in the middle rounds, which evidently made it difficult for him to use the arm. That made a difficult mission almost impossible.
The official scoring was not surprising: All three judges had it 100-90 in Santa Cruz’s favor, as did Boxing Junkie.
Santa Cruz hadn’t fought since October 2020, when Davis ended a competitive fight with a monstrous left uppercut in the sixth round.
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