Ringside Roundup: Mosley KOs Mayorga, Santz Cruz beats Mares in 'Battle of LA'

There were two boxing events taking place miles apart from each other in the Los Angeles area. On pay-per-view was a completely unwanted rematch between Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga, while ESPN boasted a featherweight main event between Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares in front of a raucous Staples Center crowd. ESPN had billed this as the battle of LA and there were expectations that it would be FOTY material. Mosley vs. Mayorga, a PPV created through Mosley's own money, marked Shane's first fight since 2013.

Shane Mosley (48-9-1, 40 KOs) KO-6 Ricardo Mayorga (31-9-1, 25 KOs). I didn't watch the pay-per-view, and evidently not many people actually attended the event live. Nevertheless, the former welterweight superstar dispatched the controversial Nicaraguan figure yet again, as he did 7 years ago with the last punch of the 12th round. While their first fight was nothing special apart from the actual finish, this one was just ... sad. Mayorga predictably missed weight for a contracted 162 lbs matchup, and looked pathetically pudgy. He was still in the best obnoxiously taunting form of his career, but was largely ineffective and beaten up by the 43-year-old Mosley. A body shot at the end of the 6th round finished Mayorga, who complained it was a low blow. The replays showed otherwise. Mayorga pretty much fought like he was there to collect a paycheck and nothing else. Here's the video of the knockout:

Less said about this, the better. Mayorga shouldn't be fighting anymore and ideally neither should Mosley, but at least he was in shape and didn't look half-bad. Oh, and Mayorga did this in the 3rd round:

Shane Mosley vs Ricardo Mayorga #MosleyMayorga i died! pic.twitter.com/XZmrB3LBku

— ZombieProphet (@ZProphet_MMA) August 30, 2015

Leo Santa Cruz (31-0-1, 17 KOs) MD-12 Abner Mares (29-2-1, 15 KOs). In the PBC on ESPN main event in front of 13,109 at LA's Staples Center, featherweights (126 lbs) Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares engaged in an entertaining if slightly ugly bout. This all-Mexican slugfest saw a combined 2,000+ punches even with prolonged periods of holding and grabbing throughout the contest. Mares came out super aggressively and tried to fight on the inside and go to Santa Cruz's body often. This worked to a considerable degree for about 2-3 rounds before Santa Cruz started piecing up Mares from range and using his jab and counterpunching skills effectively. From time to time, these two would go all-out wild punching but neither man was considerably hurt, other than a combination which stunned Abner in the 8th. Santa Cruz took over the 2nd half of the fight, and compubox numbers showed Mares landed a dismal 7 jabs out of 194. The scorecards read 117-111 2x in favor of the Mexican, with one judge turning in a 114-114 draw. Santa Cruz wins the WBA "Super" featherweight title that was left vacant when Nicholas Walters missed weight for his last title defense. Here's video of the full fight, which I recommend watching from start to finish. This is a big win for Santa Cruz, who was rightly criticized for his less-than-stellar level of competition he'd been facing. Mares is a former three-division beltholder and LSC got the victory.

These two are getting PAID from the Al Haymon war chest quite considerably. This is considerably good money for a non-PPV bout between two smaller weight class fighters.

Purses for #SantaCruzMares: $1.25 million apiece. #boxing

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) August 29, 2015

Now, the highlight of the night for me was the PBC co-main event between Julio Cesar Ceja (30-1, 27 KOs) and Hugo Ruiz (35-3, 31 KOs) for the interim WBC super bantamweight title. Ceja was down in the 3rd round on a left hook but survived the onslaught. Two rounds later, Ceja drilled Ruiz with a left hook and put him on his back. Ceja didn't let up and forced a dramatic comeback TKO stoppage after he was clearly down at least 3-4 rounds of that fight.

For more boxing coverage, turn over to Bad Left Hook.