Santa Cruz nearly pulls off upset

Roberto Santa Cruz exposed Mike Arnaoutis' limitations but Arnaoutis won a thrilling majority decision by scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114. Santa Cruz barely threw a punch in the first two rounds, which wound up costing him dearly on the scorecards. It looked like it would be another early win for Arnaouits, who entered the ring rated #30 at junior welterweight by Boxingtalk. Then, Santa Cruz started landing punches in the third, and his confidence began to grow.  Arnaoutis, 13-0-2, took everything Santa Cruz could throw and then came back in the later rounds as the Santa Ynez, California crowd went wild. Both boxers deserve praise for their supreme efforts but Arnaouits did not live up to the ambitious press releases sent out by his management. In fairness, Santa Cruz was a late replacement for Michael Warrick and entered the ring as a virtually unknown commodity. Santa Cruz hadn't fought since May 2003 and drops to 11-3, but this performance will probably keep him busy against other prospects in the 140-pound division. On the ShoBox telecast opener, welterweight Shamone Alvarez stopped Jose Medina in the fourth. The referee may have jumped in a bit too soon, but Alvarez badly staggered Medina in the previous round, so Medina doesn't have too much to complain about. It was a nice win for the undefeated Alvarez. -Scott Shaffer