There were some questions that still needed to be answered from Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) as he was moving up in weight to fight Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (15-2, 13 KOs) for the WBA junior welterweight title. Cruz had never competed at junior welterweight, and he was coming off a year where he fought only once, and that was a split decision victory over Giovanni Cabrera (21-1, 7 KOs). Would the weight play a factor, and would the lack of activity in the past year play a part late in the fight?
On Prime Video PPV, those questions were answered Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. Cruz vs. Rolly was the co-main, and the anticipation all week was that this fight would have the type of hard-hitting punches that would lead to a fantastic finish; that it did.
Cruz began the first round hungrier than he had ever been. He was confident and wasted no time ripping to the body with left and right hooks. Rolly knew Cruz would be coming forward, and you could tell he strategized for it. But the minute Rolly landed his big right hand, and Cruz didn’t flinch, that was the moment the fight was over. The switch went on in Cruz’s head, and he kept going after Rolly even more aggressively. Late in the first round, Cruz landed a left hook on Rolly’s temple, which gave him spaghetti legs. Somehow, Rolly survived, but it indicated that Cruz meant business.
In rounds two through five, Cruz kept landing some hard shots to the body that created some dark red bruises on both sides of Rolly’s body. Rolly couldn’t help but hold excessively, and in the fifth round, the referee took a point away from him for it. Cruz had Rolly in deep trouble and knew it was just a matter of time. After hurting Rolly again in the seventh round, Cruz went after him in the eighth with that same left and right hook combination, but this time, the referee saw enough and stopped the fight. Cruz earned an eighth-round TKO but, more importantly, added a significant number of fans to his already big following.
Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero Overplayed His Hand & Paid A Huge Price For It
On April 20 at the Barclays Center in NY, Devin Haney will face Ryan Garcia on DAZN PPV in a fight initially slated to feature Romero instead. While Golden Boy Promotions was trying to finalize the deal, Oscar De La Hoya said Rolly “priced himself out” in exchange for this fight with Cruz. Whether he would have made more money against Garcia than he did against Cruz on Saturday is up for debate unless the specifics were made public. From the outside looking in, it appears Rolly overplayed his hand and will now be so far back in the line that he is at least two years away from another big fight. Will Rolly ever fight again is something he will have to ask himself in the coming days following his loss to Cruz.
Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz’s Momentum Is At An All-Time High, But Who’s Next?
Cruz knew that Saturday night was the moment that could change his life again after having that solid performance against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in December 2021. All Cruz had to do was show the world that he is truly the fighter he says he is, and that was done in a big way. Cruz’s dominant performance will now get the public to get behind a rematch with Tank later this year after he faces Frank Martin in the summer. Cruz did Tank a favor with Saturday’s performance, as now his team doesn’t have to search for an opponent under another promotional company. There is no other fight that fans want to see other than that rematch, so be on the lookout for later this year, as it will likely happen.
My Three Cents
Pitbull Cruz went from humble beginnings to becoming a world champion. That is what the sport of boxing lives off of, and it’s what keeps fans coming back to it. He truly lived through a Rocky type of life and now it’s time for him to make the biggest fights possible while earning the biggest paydays available.
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