Santa Cruz landed 78 of 267 punches thrown (29%) and Terrazas landed 33 of his 156 thrown (21%). Santa Cruz was credited with landed 33 power shots in round 2. Golden Boy initially tried to make Santa Cruz vs. Cristian Mijares for 2 November however negotiations broke down on 9 October. Instead a new deal was being formed for Santa Cruz to make his first voluntary defence against Cesar Seda (25-1, 17 KOs) on 14 December at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on the undercard of the Showtime PPV Marcos Maidana vs. Adrien Broner for the WBA welterweight title. The card was later taken off PPV, but would still be aired on Showtime and would take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Santa Cruz knocked Seda down once in the fifth-round as he went on to win a unanimous decision when the three judges scored it 117-110, 116-111, 115-112 in his favor. Despite the win, Santa Cruz was disappointing with his performance. CompuBox Stats showed that Santa Cruz landed 297 of 829 punches thrown (36%) and Seda landed 170 of his 649 thrown (26%)  On 9 January 2014 it was announced that Santa Cruz would finally meet veteran Mexican contender Cristian Mijares (49-7-2, 24 KOs), also his mandatory challenger at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada on 8 March, defending his WBC title. The fight would take place on the PPV undercard of Canelo vs. Angulo. For the fight, Santa Cruz would earn $500,000 and Mijares had a $92,000 purse. The fight went the distance as Santa Cruz won on all three judges scorecards (120-108, 120-108, 119-109). Santa Cruz showed respect in the post fight interview to Mijares, who he looked up to before he won his first world title, "Mijares is a great boxer. I came to do what I had to do to win. Mijares had great experience. He's a lefty. I had to be ready. We practiced everything to put on a great fight." Santa Cruz landed 371 of 1043 punches thrown (36%) and Mijares landed 132 of his 574 thrown (23%). Santa Cruz made his next defence on 13 September at the MGM Grand on the Mayweather-Maidana II undercard against Mexican boxer Manuel Roman (17-2-3, 6 KOs) .