Lightweight contender Andy Cruz will fight Omar Omar Salcido Gamez on January 25th. Cuban 2020 Olympic gold medalist Cruz (4-0, 2 KOs) continues to gain experience for a potential world title shot against one of the lightweight champions in 2025.
Salcido (20-1, 14 KOs) is coming off a surprise ninth-round knockout victory over former highly-touted Chris Colbert on Oct. 16. This fight showed that Salcido would be a threat to the top lightweights, and it says a lot that Cruz was willing to fight him.
Lance Pugmire – @pugboxing – reports the Cruz vs. Saldido fight on January 25th.
The boxing public wants to see Cruz move faster than his promoter, Eddie Hearn, against the top 135-pounders, but that won’t happen. Cruise is in the “need” club because he’s too talented for his own good and doesn’t have the popularity needed to lure top names. He can’t even get fighters like Keyshawn Davis to fight him, and he’s not popular.
It will be interesting to see how Cruz fares against Mexican sagan Salcido. Cruz’s trainer, Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis, pushed him to be more aggressive to entertain his fans because he had started his career using his amateur style, which was very successful with a record of 135-9.
However, this style is boring and Cruz would be in the same boat as Shakur Stevenson, who fans would boo if he stuck with this approach.
Cruz’s career record:
– Antonio Moran: TKO 7
– Brayan Zamarripa Rodriguez: UD 10
– Giovanni Straffon: KO 3
– Juan Carlos Burgos: UD 10
Cruz’s fight with Moran took place on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs. Israel Madrimov on August 3 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. In the Moran fight, Cruz looked much smaller than him and was buzzing at one point when he got into a big shot. However, after trainer Bozy Ennis encouraged Cruz to go on the offensive, he wore Moran down and knocked him out in the seventh round. The forward pressure Cruz put on Moran was too much for him.
