RIVERSIDE, Calif. – It was a hastily made fight, the opponent invited on the heels of two losses in his last three fights, including a knockout defeat.
Maybe that’s all anyone making matches for new WBA 140-pound champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz needs to know, considering the popular Mexican’s penchant for unleashing hellacious punches that only the most granite of chins can withstand.
Yet, there’s a richer story to Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela, one that a superficial inspection of his record and boxing highlights obscures. And now that he’s got Cruz in the ring, with a title shot in reach, he can tell it.
“People are sleeping on me, but I think that’s a good thing,” Valenzuela told BoxingScene recently during a post-workout interview at his trainer Robert Garcia’s gym.
Go back first to that knockout loss, a Sept. 4, 2022, third-round defeat at the hands of Edwin De Los Santos, a Dominican replacement foe for Valenzuela who the then-23-year-old training under Jose Benavidez Sr. took lightly and was unprepared for.
“Everybody’s overlooking me because of the De Los Santos fight, but if you knew the conditions I fought in, anybody would’ve lost. People are saying I’m chinny. I don’t think I’m chinny because he put a lot of punches on me … I had surgery two weeks before the fight on my leg, had a sleeve on, antibiotics,” Valenzuela said.
He chalks the loss up to youthful recklessness and overconfidence.
“I don’t want to put anyone on blast. I’ll take the blame for it, being young, having won every fight, always being in the lights, being around (former unbeaten super-middleweight champion) David (Benavidez) … I got caught up in the moment and (the loss) was a good, humbling experience,” he said.
Still, it stung, and Valenzuela was angered to learn afterward from his parents that supporters of Cruz – who knocked out Eduardo Ramirez in the second round of that same card – poured salt in the wound of Valenzuela’s loss.
“When I lost to De Los Santos, ‘Pitbull’s team threw ‘Pitbull’ flags at my family after I was knocked out,” Valenzuela said. “That’s always stuck with me. I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder for ‘Pitbull,’ to go get him.”
In addition to aligning with Garcia – the early front-runner for trainer of the year who counts super-flyweight champion Jessie “Bam” Rodriguez, unbeaten junior-middleweight Vergil Ortiz and former unified 140-pound champion Jose Ramirez in his stable – Valenzuela said he changed “everything” about the associates around him following a subsequent March 25, 2023, unanimous-decision loss to Chris Colbert.
By everything, he said, Valenzuela means “everybody who’s around me – (bonding instead with) clear-headed people who love me, who’ll tell me what I need to hear.”
The left-handed Valenzuela returned to avenge the Colbert loss by sixth-round knockout in December.
Rayo is the Spanish word for lightning.
“(‘Rayo’) is very aggressive, throws hard punches with great power. ‘Rayo’ probably has more power than ‘Pitbull,’” Garcia said in a jaw-dropping statement. “His power’s crazy. And he’s listening. He’s boxing well, using that jab and those angles – and that’s all part of the plan.”
It’s not all that well known, either, that Valenzuela has been in Garcia’s gym for four consecutive months.
He’d begun preparing to exact revenge on De Los Santos, too, when the phone rang. Premier Boxing Champions had placed the increasingly popular Cruz’s first title defense on the Aug. 3 card in Los Angeles being staged by Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh and its Riyadh Season.
Would Valenzuela skip De Los Santos for a title fight?
“Yes” was delivered immediately.
“The world title’s been a dream of mine since 10,” Valenzuela said. “After almost losing everything in a flash to De Los Santos and Colbert, leaving Benavidez and finding my own way, getting my hunger back and being with my team, this is a second opportunity at what I love to do.”
Since committing to the bout, Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs) says he feels fate is part of all this, too.
When he started boxing at age 10, he recalls his first mile-long training run, inserting his headphones and listening to an Eminem song. Valenzuela has since learned that Alalshikh is bringing Eminem to perform at the Aug. 3 fight card headlined by the rapper’s friend, unbeaten three-division champion Terence Crawford.
“Crazy because it’s a full-circle thing – my first run to my first title,” Valenzuela said.
Garcia is eager to send his well-prepared charge into the ring, knowing his thirsting contender poses the complication of a left-handed stance and the ability to land flurries and damaging power punches while the champion may be viewing this as a coronation of sorts before a friendly L.A. crowd.
Both Valenzuela and Garcia have watched how southpaw Giovanni Cabrera gave Cruz fits in their July 2023 bout decided by a one-point split-decision.
“A southpaw is always going to be difficult for a right-hander. Most of the fights, we try to avoid southpaws because they always give guys trouble,” Garcia said. “(Cruz) didn’t look too great against a southpaw (Cabrera), so that’s a thing we’re looking at. He didn’t have great success against the tall, lanky southpaw. ‘Rayo’ is much, much better than Giovanni Cabrera. We’re also working on the punches down the middle. If he lands good, he’ll hurt ‘Pitbull.’
“And being in the gym so long is good. He’s got his mind locked in on fighting. He’s ready.”
Garcia emphasizes one other point.
“Valenzuela’s very focused. He’s fighting a title fight against the most loved fighter from Mexico. Not one person in Mexico doesn’t love ‘Pitbull.’ That’s a big opportunity – because ‘Rayo’ was also born in Mexico and he wants to let the world know it’s two Mexicans in the ring, which makes it a more interesting fight.
“He’s got a great chance, and I think while ‘Pitbull’ is a tremendous fighter we respect, they’ve also done a great job promoting him and selecting his opponents.”
Like Eminem’s lyrics in “Lose Yourself,” Valenzuela expects to reflect upon the travails he experienced when fight night arrives.
Raised in Washington after being born in Mexico, he recalls his parents, father Arturo and mother Yagna, making deep concessions to support his boxing dream.
“They sacrificed everything for me – two hours to get to the gym making minimum wage ($10 an hour). They’d put their last $30 in the tank just to get me to the gym,” Valenzuela said. “Coming home, the lights were off. They invested all their money in me – money and time they didn’t have. The fact I was so close to losing it all … to being here now. I’m going to leave it all in the ring.”
Arturo and Yagna Valenzuela will attend the fight.
“Now is the perfect moment in my life,” Jose Valenzuela said. “Everything happens for a reason. I don’t think I would be as ready as I am in this moment. It’s all prepared me perfectly.”
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