Southland’s Leo Santa Cruz, Mikey Garcia poised to lead new era in boxing

The longtime friends who began their pro fighting careers just more than a decade ago caught eyes on the post-fight stage, clasped hands and beamed smiles.

Leo Santa Cruz and Mikey Garcia, Southland-raised fighters who’d just mutually overcome career adversity by regaining world titles Saturday night at MGM Grand, were bringing their belts back to Los Angeles, intent to lead a new era in boxing.

“Very good night for L.A.,” Garcia said.

Garcia (36-0, 30 knockouts) — who had a return warmup bout in July after officially proclaiming himself back from a 30-month layoff tied to a contract dispute — knocked out unbeaten World Boxing Council lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin in the third round.

Garcia delivered a signature moment by waiting for a rocked Zlaticanin to bounce off the ropes before cocking back his right fist, flashing a merciless expression of viciousness and leaving his foe briefly unconscious from a massive punch to the face.

The showing was so impressive with so much potential that there was a palpable feel of a chapter turning in the energetic arena that hosted the disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao bout two years ago.

That hangover seemed officially washed away by the promise of the Riverside-trained fighter raised in Oxnard.

“I’m available to fight anybody,” said Garcia, 29, expressing willingness to trek to England to meet either World Boxing Organization champion Terry Flanagan or Anthony Crolla, should he beat World Boxing Assn. champion Jorge Linares in their March rematch. “As a champion, you always want challenges. I’ll take any lightweight.”

He’s also capable of meeting his former promoter Bob Arum’s two brightest champions, 130-pound Vasyl Lomachenko and 140-pound Terence Crawford.

“This is only the beginning,” Garcia said. “The best is yet to come.”

The 28-year-old Santa Cruz (33-1-1, 18 KOs) thinks similarly in his deep featherweight division after avenging his July majority decision loss to Northern Ireland’s Carl Frampton by handing Frampton his first loss, also by majority decision, in the World Boxing Assn. title bout.

Executing effective boxing set up by a reliance on the jab to capitalize on his seven-inch reach advantage, Santa Cruz threw 884 punches and landed 81 jabs to Frampton’s 28.

“Hand to heart, it was a fair decision,” said Frampton (23-1), who pushed to invoke his rematch clause with an immediate summer meeting in his hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the summer.

“Leo is a tremendous fighter. He surprised me with his tactics. Obviously, I’m very disappointed. We’ve now had 24 rounds with each other. They’ve all been competitive rounds. It’s one-all now. We have to make it a trilogy.

“Leo has said he’ll do the third fight in Belfast. I hope he’s a man of his word. He can come stay at my house if he wants, and then I’d be happy to go to L.A.”

Santa Cruz, managed by the cunning Al Haymon, may have something else in mind, saying, “We’re going to talk to my manager … but there may be some other options, too. But I am a man of my word and a true champion will go anywhere.”

It might be more attractive, however, for Santa Cruz to return next to Staples Center in a rematch against secondary WBA featherweight champion Abner Mares of Hawaiian Gardens, himself a three-division champion whom Santa Cruz edged by majority decision there in 2015.

And Frampton, itching to return home, could fight International Boxing Federation featherweight champion Lee Selby of England.

The winners could then meet by the end of the year, and there’s interest to bring a possible third Santa Cruz-Frampton meeting back to the U.S.

Santa Cruz expressed great satisfaction and relief after shining in the late rounds to emerge by judges’ scores of 114-114, 115-113, 115-113.

“I put it in my mind if I lost to him this fight, I was maybe going to retire because you’re here to be the best and if he beat me, what else was I going to do?” Santa Cruz said. “I wouldn’t want to fight for second.”

Los Angeles-based promoter Richard Schaefer, who returned from his own legal layoff to stage his first Las Vegas fight since 2014 Saturday, has presided over title wins by Mares, Garcia and Santa Cruz in the past two months, furthering his mission to stamp L.A. as “the fight capitol of the world.”

Schaefer has sought to sign local talent and said he plans to stage more showcase bouts in the Southland and within the reasonable distance of Las Vegas, with Garcia and Santa Cruz boosting their projected pay-per-view participation by drawing more than 10,000 to MGM Grand while Showtime hopes for strong ratings.

“Tonight,” Schaefer said, “was a very special night.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire