The reign of Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz has begun. The popular Mexican fighter was crowned on Saturday night with an impressive demonstration of power to bring fans to their feet in Las Vegas and give Mexican boxing a new world champion.
“Pitbull” Cruz defeated Rolando “Rolly” Romero by technical knockout in the eighth round to snatch the super lightweight title from the World Boxing Association (WBA) version and in the process give the American fighter a lesson in a function held at the T arena. -Mobile.
“Rolly” Romero talked too much before the fight, sometimes taunting Cruz that he wasn’t Pitbull, but a “Chihuahua.” The Mexico City native had warned that he was going to talk to him. So it was.
“I made him eat all the garbage he was saying,” the 25-year-old said. who has been described by some as a little Mike Tyson for his fighting style.
“Rolly” Romero escaped knockout twice before the end
“Pitbull” Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) put Romero (15-2) in trouble from the first round with a left hook that staggered him. The Las Vegas fighter survived helped by hugs and in fact the champion landed good rights to Cruz’s head in the next three or four rounds. Only the Mexican didn’t even flinch.
“You hit him in the belly and he lowered his arms,” his father and coach told Cruz in the corner after round 4 to make him attack the body. of a taller man. “Pitbull” did it, abusing the left side of his opponent.
Romero held Cruz’s arm again and again. He did it as a resource to try to stop the attacks of a man with more power in his fists and he tried to use his long arms and leg mobility to box him.
Everything started to change when Referee Tom Taylor, after a couple of warnings, took a point away from Romero in the fifth round for not stopping holding his rival’s arm. “You’re holding too much,” Taylor explained to the fighter.
Cruz became even more aggressive from then on and was on the verge of knocking out in the seventh round, when Romero received harsh punishment from rope to rope, finding no escape from the challenger’s fury. A right uppercut was one of the most brutal blows. Romero was practically knocked out and even walked to the wrong corner when the bell rang.
The ring doctor checked Romero before round 8 at the referee’s request. The fight continued, but 56 seconds into the round he stopped the beating after Cruz landed a devastating left hand. and continued with an accurate combination of blows that forced the “massacre” to stop, a word used by Cruz minutes later.
Cruz, who landed 129 of 354 punches thrown according to statistics, thanked his family and fans. “We come to take every dollar back from them,” said the new champion, always applauded by the majority of the fans in the arena.
“Rey” Martínez and Erislandy Lara retain their championships
In other championship fights from the show in Las Vegas, Mexican Julio César “Rey” Martínez retained his WBC flyweight crown by winning by majority decision (114-112, 114-112, 113-113) to the tough Venezuelan Angelino Córdova. And Cuban Erislandy Lara knocked out Australian Michael Zerafa in the second round to defend his WBA middleweight crown.
In the main fight of the evening, the American giant Sebastian Fundora earned split decision over Australian Tim Tszyu in bloody bout which included a strange and grotesque cut on Tszyu’s head. The 6-6 foot tall man was crowned WBC and WBO super welterweight world champion.
News in development.