Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz will be looking to expand his popularity 18 days from now when he defends his WBA light welterweight title against Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela on August 3rd on the Terence Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov card.
Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) vs. ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs) in one of the exciting fights on this card, which was assembled by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh for the 22,000-seat BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
This will be the 26-year-old ‘Pitbull’ Cruz’s first defense of his WBA title, which he captured earlier this year, knocking out champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero in the eighth round on March 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Cruz’s opponent, the big-punching ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela, has put himself in this position to challenge for a world title by knocking out Chris Colbert in the sixth round in their rematch on December 16th last year at The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In Rayo’s previous two fights, he’d lost to Colbert by a questionable twelve-round decision and been knocked out by Edwin De Los Santos.
“Isaac Cruz is becoming one of the biggest stars in American boxing. Again, it’s going to be huge support for him in Los Angeles, and this fight is a tough one,” said Eddie Hearn to the Matchroon Boxing YouTube channel, talking about WBA light welterweight champion Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz defending against #5 Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela on August 3rd on ESPN+ PPV.
Regarding entertainment value, ‘Pitbull’ Cruz is the most exciting fighter on the card and the one that many boxing fans are eager to see. That’s not a knock on the main event between Crawford and Madrimov, but Cruz-Rayo is a fight where these two guys will be throwing bombs from the moment the fight starts.
They won’t be trying to box like Crawford is expected to do in his fight, and it will be entertaining for as long as it lasts.
“Valenzuela is a crafty, clever fighter that can fight in spaces as well. He can fight on the inside and fight on the outside,” said Hearn. “But Pitbull Cruz is strong and exciting. He’s a real pound-for-pound potential fighter but a PPV potential fighter as well.”
I wouldn’t call ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela a “crafty” fighter. He’s more of a gunslinger who will be firing bullets at ‘Pitbull’ Cruz, looking to get him out of there because that’s his style. Moreover, Rayo is looking to give the fans a great fight, and he won’t want to play it safe, which will hurt his marketability.
“He’s [Cruz] all action, and when you fought on the Tim Tszyu card [on March 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas], the whole arena was going nuts for Pitbull Cruz, and that’s going to be a very good fight,” said Hearn.
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