Leonard Ellerbe wasn’t surprised that Jose Valenzuela defeated Isaac Cruz

Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz had been riding a high ever since his competitive loss to Gervonta “Tank” Davis back in December 2021.

Although there was a caveat to that night — Davis had a hand injury — Cruz was able to leverage that performance into additional opportunities, culminating in a move up to junior welterweight to win a world title over Rolando “Rolly” Romero in March 2024.

Months later, Cruz was deposed of his WBA belt by Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela. And one of the people who has worked closest with Tank over these years said he wasn’t at all surprised.

“Pitbull was, with all due respect, a very good fighter but kind of like one-dimensional,” said Leonard Ellerbe, the now-former CEO of Mayweather Promotions who remains a pivotal guiding force in Davis’ career, speaking in an interview with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV. “He’s a good pressure fighter. Very entertaining. But he can be outboxed. He’s got a good chin, but he can definitely be out-boxed.”

And that’s what Valenzuela was able to do when he defeated Cruz via split decision last month on the undercard of Israil Madrimov vs. Terence Crawford.

Two judges had Valenzuela winning, 116-112. The dissenting voice saw Cruz ahead, 115-113.

“I didn’t really score, but he made it look easy,” Ellerbe said of Valenzuela (14-2, 9 KOs). “I fully expected Rolly to do that, but that didn’t happen. Great game plan. Just boxed the guy, turned him, made him miss and scored.”

There had been some whispers that Cruz, had he gotten past Valenzuela in August, could have landed a rematch with Davis (30-0, 28 KOs), the WBA titleholder down at lightweight. With Cruz’s loss — and with unification bouts between Davis and either Vasiliy Lomachenko or Shakur Stevenson not happening next — the thinking now is that Tank could meet Valenzuela at 140.

Ellerbe was tight-lipped about Davis’ next move — “I’m very confident that when he’s ready to go, he’s going to let the boxing world know,” he told Villegas. “Discussions are being had.”

But as for a fight with Valenzuela? He’s not ruling that out.

“Why not?” Ellerbe said. “He’s a good fighter.”

Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.