Contender Andy Cruz will compete against Omar Omar Salcido Gamez on January 25. 2020 Cuban Olympic gold medalist Cruz (4-0, 2 KOs) continues to train for a potential world title shot against one of the 2025 lightweight champions.
Salcido (20-1, 14 KOs) is coming off a ninth-round knockout of previously highly ranked Chris Colbert on Oct. 16. This fight showed that Salcido will be a threat to the heavyweight division and it says a lot that Cruz was willing to fight him.
Lance Pugmire – @pugboxing – reports on the Cruz vs. Saldido fight on January 25th.
The boxing community would like to see Cruz move on from his promoter Eddie Hearn as soon as possible to compete at 135 pounds, but that is not going to happen. Cruise is in the “who needs him” club because he’s too talented for his own good and doesn’t have the popularity to attract top names. He can’t even get fighters like Keyshawn Davis to fight him and he’s not famous.
It will be interesting to see how Cruz does against Mexican slugger Salcido. Cruz’s trainer, Derek ‘The Game’ Ennis, encouraged him to be more offensive to entertain the fans as he began his career using his air style, which was very successful in posting a record of 135-9.
However, this style is boring and Cruise finds himself in the same boat as Shakur Stevenson, who would be booed by fans if he stuck with this approach.
Cruz’s career record:
– Antonio Moran: failed 7
– Brian Zamarripa Rodriguez: UD 10
– Giovanni Straffon: KO 3
– Juan Carlos Burgos: UD 10
Cruz fights Moran on the undercard of Terence Crawford vs. Israel Madrimov on Aug. 3 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. In the fight with Moran, Cruz was much smaller than him and at one point he got angry when he went in for a big shot. However, after his trainer Bozy Ennis encouraged Cruz to go on the offensive, he defeated Moran and knocked him out in the seventh round. The initial pressure that Cruz put on Moran was too much for him.
