ISAAC CRUZ got his career back on track in Las Vegas last night with a 10-round unanimous decision victory against Angel Fierro.
Cruz was aiming to put the loss to Jose Valenzuela behind him, which had ended his five-month reign as WBA super-lightweight champion.
The Cruz-Fierro all-Mexican super lightweight clash is now a Fight of the Year contender after an entertaining battle but we are only at the beginning of February.
That being said, the late Israel ‘Magnifico’ Vazquez would have approved of their efforts, which rewarded Cruz, 27-3-1 (18 KOs), with the commemorative WBC Azteca Warrior belt in honour of the former super bantamweight world champion who lost his battle with cancer in December aged 46.
From the first bell, Cruz came out swinging, nailing Fierro with a straight right hand, which set the tone of the fight and would become a punch, which gave Fierro problems throughout.
In fact, Cruz dominated the opening two rounds, but Fierro made his mark in the final 40 seconds of the third. Fierro rocked Cruz with a shot to the top of the head, which had ‘Pitbull’ out of sorts and on wobbly legs despite his best attempts to disguise them.
At the beginning of round four, Cruz made a point to land something heavy on Fierro to prove he had shrugged off the wobble from the previous session. The 26-year-old got back on top, but Fierro was always competitive, and an impressive second half of the bout brought him back into contention.
Cruz’s shots were the more eye-catching, however, and likely caught the judges’ eyes, who eventually scored it 96-94 (Steve Weisfeld), which was acceptable, but the 97-93 (Don Trella) and 98-92 (Eric Cheek) were not a fair reflection of Fierro’s efforts.
“I came here to fight. I came here to show the fans and world what I do. I think I did that, I entertained the crowd,” Cruz said in his post-fight interview.
Fierro, 23-3-2 (18 KOs), was asked what he thought about the judges’ scoring.
“I gave the fans a great fight like I said, to give it all in the ring. I don’t care about the judges, I gave you guys a great fight and I hope Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz gives me a rematch. I think I deserve it.”
