Lightweight contender Andy Cruz (5-0, 2 KOs) hopes to get some big fights in 2025 following his one-sided 10-round unanimous decision win over Omar Salido (20-2, 14 KOs) at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas last Saturday night.
(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
Cruz Dominates
Cruz’s trainer, Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis, wanted him to go all out for a knockout after repeatedly hurting Salido from the eighth round, but he couldn’t do it. He still won by 99-91, 98-92, and 98-92. The judges were kind to give Salido any rounds because he didn’t appear to win any of them. It should have been 100-90 x 3.
Cruz’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, was short on details afterward about who he could fight next. He mentioned going the IBF route, but that doesn’t look like a possibility for Andy to get a title shot in 2025.
Ideally, Hearn would like to match Cruz against Keyshawn Davis, but he’s not interested at all. Keyshawn showed up last night, but likely just for him to be seen as a fighter associated with the rising Cuban star Andy Cruz in the amateurs.
“If I were to give a mark for my performance, I would say it was good, but you can always improve,” said Andy Cruz to Boxing Social, rating his performance in his one-sided victory against Omar Salcido last Saturday night.
I put my maximum effort into the fight, but it was against a tough, good opponent. He was looking for a knockout early on because he knew that given my ability, it was an impossibility that he could beat me on points,” Cruz continued.
“So, what I did was I realized I was a lot faster than he. He was a lot slower than me. So, I went out, and I took advantage of that speed, and I almost got him out of there in the end.”
The fight was a mismatch, as Salido wasn’t in the same league as Andy Cruz, and that was obvious from the start of the fight. Salido was just loading up on every shot from the get-go, looking to score a knockout because he clearly knew that his only path to victory was to get lucky. That’s how he fought in his previous fight against Chris Colbert on October 16th. He was putting maximum power into every shot, which eventually paid off for him with a ninth KO victory.
“I think it’s important for you to do that because you have to look for a lot of different ways,” said Cruz. “You face many different fighters and many strong opponents. So, you’re faced with many different situations in the ring, and you have to be prepared to understand what you do in those situations.
“What I have to do is work really hard at being precise, being quick, but also going in and fighting this way to go in and do what I need to do.
Keyshawn Bitterness
“I went in there, given that he’s my son. I wanted to give him a big hug, but I was rejected. I don’t know if he’s upset with me, but hopefully, we can reconcile our differences in the future the next time we meet,” said Cruz about being rebuffed by Keyshawn Davis when he attempted to hug him last Saturday after his win over Salcido at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Keyshawn Davis is still pretty bitter over his four defeats against Cruz in the amateurs and the hard time that boxing fans are giving him. The way Keyshawn talks, he sounds like he views himself as a star who doesn’t need to take risky fights.
He hasn’t fought anyone yet for him to have that kind of high view of himself, and he came into the pros after failing against Cruz in the amateurs. He won’t dare fight Cruz and have him ruin his chances to make easy money.
“What I need to do now is enjoy this victory and keep doing what I’m doing, which is keep moving up and progressing with each fighter. I’m facing a more difficult fight with each fighter has. What I can say is 2025 is going to be very, very interesting,” said Cruz.
Hearn’s Options
What’s going to be interesting is to see if promoter Eddie Hearn can line Andy Cruz up with a world title shot in 2025 because chances of getting a shot against these three fighters are nonexistent:
– Gervonta Davis
– Shakur Stevenson
– Keyshawn Davis
None of those fighters have expressed interest in fighting Andy Cruz, and that’s not likely to change in 2026. Cruz is too good. It will require Turki Al-Sheikh to convince one of these fighters to agree to fight him.
Cruz can always count on the sanctioning bodies to order a fight, but as we’ve seen with them, champions can swerve dangerous mandatory challengers for years. Boxing needs to change to prevent champions from avoiding their contenders because it hurts the sport.
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