Lightweight contender Andy Cruz (5-0, 2 KOs) hopes to land some big fights in 2025 following his one-sided unanimous decision victory over Omar Salido (20-2, 14 KOs) at the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan last Saturday night.
(Credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
Cruz dominates
Cruz's trainer, Derek 'Bozy' Ennis, wanted to go all out by knockout after repeatedly hurting Salido in the eighth round, but he couldn't do it. He still won 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92. The judges were kind enough to give Salido any rounds as he didn't seem to win any of them. It should have been 100-90 x 3.
Cruz's promoter, Eddie Hearn, was tight-lipped about who he might fight next. He mentioned going the IBF route, but that doesn't look like a possibility for Andy to get the title in 2025.
Ideally, Hearn would like to match Cruz against Keyshawn Davis, but he's not interested at all. Keyshawn made an appearance last night, but it's likely only to be seen as a fighter linked to rising Cuban star Andy Cruz in the amateurs.
“If I were to give my performance a grade, I'd say it's good, but you can always improve,” Andy Cruz said Boxingjudging his performance in his one-sided win against Omar Salcido last Saturday night.
I put my best effort into the fight, but it was against a tough, good opponent. He was looking for a knockout early because he knew that with my ability, it was impossible for him to beat me on points,” Cruz continued.
“So what I did was I realized I was a lot faster than him. He was a lot slower than me. So I went out and I used that speed and I ended up almost pulling him out.”
The fight was a mismatch, as Salido was not in the same league as Andy Cruz, and that was evident from the start of the fight. Salido just loaded up on every shot from the start, looking to score a knockout because he obviously knew his only path to victory was luck. That's how he fought in his previous fight against Chris Colbert on October 16th. He invested maximum power in every shot, which in the end paid off with his ninth KO victory.
“I think it's important for you to do that because you have to look at a lot of different avenues,” Cruz said. “You're facing a lot of different fighters and a lot of strong opponents. So you're facing a lot of different situations in the ring and you have to be prepared to understand what you're doing in those situations.
“What I have to do is work very precisely, quickly, but also go in and fight in this way to go in and do what I have to do.
Keyshawn bitterness
“I went in there, considering that he is my son. I wanted to hug him, but I was refused. I don't know if he's upset with meBut hopefully we can reconcile our differences in the future the next time we meet,” Cruz said of being rebuffed by Keyshawn Davis when he tried to hug him last Saturday after his win over Salcido at the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan.
Keyshawn Davis is still pretty bitter about his four amateur losses to Cruz and the hard time boxing fans are giving him. The way Keyshawn talks, it sounds like he sees himself as a star who doesn't need to fight risky fights.
He has never fought anyone to have such a high opinion of himself, and he entered the pro ranks after coming up short against Cruz. He won't dare fight Cruz and make him ruin his chances of making some easy money.
“What I have to do now is enjoy this win and keep doing what I'm doing, which is keep moving and progressing with every bottle. I'm facing a tougher fight with every fighter. What I can say is that 2025 . to be very, very interesting,” Cruz said.
Options Hearn
What will be interesting is to see if promoter Eddie Hearn can match Andy Cruz with a world title shot in 2025, as the chances of a shot against these three fighters are non-existent:
– Gervonta Davis
– Shakur Stevenson
– Keyshawn Davis
None of those fighters have expressed interest in fighting Andy Cruz, and that won't change in 2026. Cruz is too good. Turki al-Sheikh will demand that he convince one of these fighters to agree to fight him.
Cruz can always count on sanctioning bodies to order a fight, but as we've seen with them, champions can spend years making dangerous mandatory challengers. Boxing needs to change to stop champions avoiding their contenders because it hurts the sport.