Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela vs. Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz 2 rematch is in the works for the undercard of David Benavidez vs. David Morrell on January 25th in Las Vegas.
Fans’ reaction to seeing a rematch between WBA light welterweight champion Rayo Valenzuela (14-2, 9 KOs) and former champ Pitbull Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs) is mixed because their previous fight on Augut 3rd had a conclusive winner.
If it had been a closer one and Cruz had come back to beat someone good, fans would be more interested in seeing them fight again. It looked like Cruz was overmatched against Valenzuela, and never got into the fight.
The 5’10” ‘Rayo’ easily outboxed Cruz, hitting him with shots and escaping to the outside to avoid his punches. The judges gave it to Valenzuela with scores of 116-112, 116-112 for Rayo, and 115-113 for Cruz.
“In an interview, José Benavidez Sr. has just confirmed that they are working so that the co-main event of @Benavidez300 vs. @OsvaryJ will be the rematch between @rayoboxing and @IsaacPitbull98,” said Fernando Sabatini on X.
The real interesting fight on the card is the headliner between WBC interim super middleweight champion Benavidez and WBA ‘regular’ 175-lb champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs). That is going to be a war, and we could see one of them get knocked out.
Benavidez took a lot of big shots in his debut at 175 against former WBC champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15th.
If Benavidez fights like that against Morrell, he’ll get knocked out because the Cuban is a huge puncher with power compared to a cross between Adonis Stevenson and Artur Beterbiev. Morrell has one-punch power, and he’ll be dangerous for someone as easy to hit as Benavidez.
Speaking of Beterbiev. The winner of his fight against WBA champion Dmitry Bivol on October 12th could face the Benavidez vs. Morrell winner. The only way that doesn’t happen is if the two champions have a rematch or the winner vacates.
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