Matchroom’s matchmakers haven’t allowed the events of this past Saturday night dissuade them from putting perhaps the company’s most prized prospect in tough again next month.
Boxing News has learned that touted Cuban lightweight Andy Cruz agreed to face another hard-punching Mexican veteran, Omar Salcido, in a 10-round bout January 25 in Las Vegas. Cruz (4-0, 2 KOs), who trains in Philadelphia, and Salcido (20-1, 14 KOs) will square off in a co-feature DAZN will stream from The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan.
An official announcement of Cruz-Salcido is expected soon, not long after two of Matchroom Boxing’s American prospects – lightweight Marc Castro (13-1, 8 KOs) and welterweight Jalil Hackett (9-1, 7 KOs) – were upset on the Richardson Hitchins-Liam Paro undercard Saturday night at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
As previous reported by other outlets, Diego Pacheco (22-0, 18 KOs), a super middleweight contender from Los Angeles, will oppose Omaha, Nebraska’s Steven Nelson (20-0, 16 KOs) in the 12-round main event of this Matchroom/DAZN show January 25.
The 29-year-old Cruz, who won a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in August 2021 in Tokyo, defeated hard-hitting Mexican Antonio Moran by seventh-round knockout in his last fight.
Moran buzzed Cruz with a left hook that made him stumble and then hold with just under 30 seconds on the clock in the fourth round August 3 on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. Cruz regained his composure, however, took complete control of their bout and continued to touch Moran with hard rights to his head.
The last of Cruz’s rights made Moran lose his balance late in the seventh round. The ropes helped keep him up, therefore referee Gerard White counted it as a knockdown.
White halted the action with one second to go in the seventh round because Moran stumbled across the ring and clearly couldn’t continue.
The 24-year-old Salcido scored his most noteworthy win October 16, when he stopped Brooklyn’s Chris Colbert in the ninth round of a 10-round main event ProBox TV streamed from Plant City, Florida.
The Lakeside, California resident led Colbert comfortably on all three scorecards – 79-73, 79-73 and 78-74 – entering the ninth round. When Salcido continued to crack Colbert (17-3, 6 KOs) with flush punches, an upright Colbert’s handlers asked referee Michael DeJesus to stop their fight at 1:02 of the ninth round.
