Notebook: 'Pitbull' looks to shake off title loss, make another run
Benavidez-Morrell PPV lineup; Teraji-Akui flyweight unification; Janibek defense in works; Berlanga issues hit list; Quick hits; Show and tell
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The WBA junior welterweight title reign of Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz lasted just five months, from last March to August, but the fan favorite is aiming to get back on track for another opportunity.
Cruz scored a dominating eighth-round knockout of Rolando Romero to take the 140-pound belt on the Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora undercard on March 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
But Cruz lost the belt in his first defense, dropping a split decision to Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard on Aug. 3 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
Cruz passed on the right to an immediate rematch and instead will return to take on Mexican countryman Angel Fierro in a 10-rounder on the undercard of the light heavyweight showdown between David Benavidez and David Morrell on the PBC on Prime PPV on Saturday (Prime Video PPV, PPV.COM, 8 p.m. ET, $79.99) at T-Mobile Arena.
“Our bags are packed and we’re ready to see everyone in Vegas this week,” Cruz said. “People are eager to see us back in the ring once again and there’s no better way to kick off 2025 than with an all-out Mexican battle.
“Saturday is a new beginning. Fans love these types of fights and that’s who I fight for. We had a strong training camp to be at our best when the bell rings. The goal is to retake our spot at the top and get into more big fights. We’re going to go into that ring in great shape.”
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Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs), 26, who moved up from lightweight for the opportunity to challenge Romero at junior welterweight, is undersized for the division but opted to remain there after the title loss.
He is eager for his third fight in Las Vegas, where he fought for the first time as a lightweight in a decision win over Giovanni Cabrera on the Crawford-Errol Spence card in July 2023.
“I remember my first time fighting in Las Vegas because it was the culmination of years of hard work,” Cruz said. “Every Mexican fighter wants to fight in Las Vegas and I’m thankful to be coming back. This doesn’t feel much different than that first time and that’s because of all the fans who have shown me love. I’m thankful for them and I want to make them proud.”
Fierro (23-2-2, 18 KOs), 26, took a 10-round decision loss to Alfredo Santiago in June but bounced back for a fifth-round knockout of Eleazar Valenzuela Carrillo in November.
Benavidez-Morrell PPV lineup
Light heavyweights: David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) vs. David Morrell Jr. (11-0, 9 KOs), 12 rounds, for Benavidez’s WBC interim and Morrell’s WBA “regular” titles
Featherweights: Brandon Figueroa (25-1-1, 19 KOs) vs. Stephen Fulton Jr. (22-1, 8 KOs), rematch, 12 rounds, for Figueroa’s WBC title
Junior welterweights: Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs) vs. Angel Fierro (22-2-2, 17 KOs), 10 rounds
Middleweights: Jesus Ramos Jr. (21-1, 17 KOs) vs. Jeison Rosario (24-4-2, 18 KOs), 10 rounds
Preliminaries free on Prime Video (6 p.m. ET)
Featherweights: Mirco Cuello (14-0, 11 KOs) vs. Christian Olivo (22-1-1, 9 KOs), 10 rounds, WBA eliminator
Middleweights: Yoenli Hernandez (6-0, 6 KOs) vs. Angel Ruiz (18-3-1, 13 KOs), 10 rounds
Teraji-Akui unification set
WBC flyweight titlist Kenshiro Teraji and Seigo Yuri Akui, who holds the WBA belt, will meet in a rare all-Japanese unification bout in the main event of a world title tripleheader on March 13 at Ryoguko Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, Teiken Promotions announced at a news conference on Monday.
Teraji (24-1, 15 KOs), 33, vacated the unified WBC/WBA junior flyweight title and moved up in weight and won the vacant WBC crown in his last bout, an 11th-round knockout of Cristofer Rosales on Oct. 13 in Tokyo.
Also on that card, Akui (21-2-1, 11 KOs), 29, of Japan, made his second defense and won a split decision over Thailand’s Thananchai Charunphak in a prelude to the eventual unification fight.
The March 13 card will also feature WBO flyweight titlist Anthony Olascuaga (8-1, 6 KOs), 26, of Los Angeles, making his second defense against Japan’s Hiroto Kyoguchi (19-2, 12 KOs), 31, who is a former strawweight and junior flyweight titleholder seeking a belt in a third weight class.
In the third title bout, Shokichi Iwata (14-1, 11 KOs), 28, of Japan, will defend the WBO junior flyweight title for the first time against mandatory challenger Rene Santiago (13-4, 9 KOs), 32, of Puerto Rico, a former WBO interim titlist, who lost a decision when he faced full titleholder Jonathan Gonzalez in March 2024.
Iwata knocked out Jairo Noriega in the third round to win the vacant title on the Oct. 13 undercard in Tokyo.
The card will be carried by Japanese streaming service U-Next. ESPN+ has typically carried Teiken’s world title cards in the United States but it does not have a deal for this event in place.
The Ring appearance
I joined the new Ring magazine show “Between The Rounds” along with Chael Sonnen and Showbizz The Adult for a free-wheeling discussion on numerous boxing topics. It’s a bit wild but I took ‘em to school! LOL. Check it out here:
Make sure to check out the 2024 award stories
Janibek defense in works
Unified middleweight titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly, a 2016 Olympian from Kazakhstan, is headed home to defend his title for the fifth time.
Alimkhanuly (16-0, 11 KOs), 31, who is based in Oxnard, California, and has not fought in his home country since his first two professional bouts in 2016 and 2017, is nearing a deal to have a homecoming defense in April, possibly May.
Top Rank, his promoter, and British promoter GBM are hammering out a deal that would see Alimkhanuly defend against Shakiel Thompson (13-0, 9 KO), 27, a southpaw from England, two sources with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite on Monday.
Alimkhanuly claimed the WBO title in 2022 when he was elevated from interim to full titleholder. He unified in 2023 when he knocked out IBF titlist Vincenzo Gualtieri in the sixth round of a one-sided fight.
After a year off after that bout, he returned in October, traveling to Australia, where he knocked out Andrei Mikhailovich in the ninth round of another one-sided fight. Only the IBF belt was at stake because Mikhailovich’s team declined to fight for the WBO title.
Thompson, who is ranked No. 9 by the WBO, does have business to attend to first. He is scheduled for a warm-up fight on Feb. 7 (DAZN), when he will face Tanzania native Hamisi Maya (17-5-1, 14 KOs), 27, on the undercard of European light heavyweight champion Daniel Dos Santos’ defense against Shakan Pitters in Sheffield, England.
Berlanga hit list
Super middleweight contender Edgar Berlanga is not shy about the opponents he hopes to eventually face.
“After my March 8th fight these are the next 6 fights that I want in no particular order. LINE ’EM UP FOR ME: Jamie Mungia, Jermall Charlo, Caleb Plant, (Hamzah) Sheeraz, Canelo (Alvarez) rematch, Diego Pacheco,” Berlanga posted to social media.
He has repeatedly exchanged words with former super middleweight titlist Plant on social media. Pacheco, who is Berlanga’s Matchroom Boxing stablemate and outpointed Steven Nelson on Saturday night, would likely make for a fan-friendly fight between young contenders and it probably the easiest one to make.
Berlanga is due fight on a Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN on March 8 in Puerto Rico. His opponent is not set but not expected to be anybody overly threatening as he comes back from his first defeat.
The fight will be the first for Berlanga (22-1, 27 KOs), 27, a Puerto Rican from Brooklyn, New York, since he suffered his first loss challenging unified champion and pound-for-pound star Alvarez in a major Mexico-Puerto Rico showdown that headlined a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view on Sept.14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Although Alvarez knocked Berlanga down in the third round and handed him his first defeat in a lopsided unanimous decision, Berlanga put up a far better fight than most expected he would.
Quick hits
Besides official world and regional title belts, the WBC has also on occasion awarded commemorative belts to help celebrate certain fights. It will do so again with the introduction of its “Aztec Warrior” belt as a way to honor fights between Mexicans. The inaugural "Aztec Warrior" belt will be awarded to the winner of Saturday’s junior welterweight fight between former WBA titlist Isaac "Pitbull" Cruz and Angel Fierro as a tribute to the former junior featherweight champion and revered ring warrior Israel Vazquez, who died from cancer in December.
Former WBO light heavyweight titleholder Joe Smith Jr. (28-5, 22 KOs), 35, who is from New York’s Long Island, will face Devonte Williams (13-1, 6 KOs), 31, of Houston, in a 10-round cruiserweight bout when he ends a 16-month layoff on Feb. 13 in the main event of Star Boxing’s 50th edition of its long-running “Rockin’ Fights” series at The Paramount in Huntington, New York. Smith’s return, which was announced earlier this month but with no opponent, will take place after back-to-back losses to Artur Beterbiev in a light heavyweight unification fight and Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in a move up to cruiserweight. Williams has not had an official fight since December 2021 but has been quite active in the Team Combat League.
Super middleweight up-and-comer Darius Fulghum (13-0, 11 KOs), 28, of Houston, will take on Winfred Harris (22-2-2, 10 KOs), 29, of Detroit, in a 10-rounder that will serve as the co-feature when junior welterweight contender Oscar Duarte meets former two-time titlist Regis Prograis in the previously announced Golden Boy main event on Feb. 15 (DAZN) at Honda Center in Anaheim, California, a source with knowledge of the event told Fight Freaks Unite. Blue chip welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte (5-0, 5 KOs), 21, of Bakersfield, California, is also ticketed for the card in a six-rounder against an opponent to be determined.
Show and tell
In the early 2010s, the two best junior welterweights in the world were Timothy Bradley Jr. and Devon Alexander. They had world titles, good resumes and were undefeated. Bradley was 26-0 and Alexander was 21-0, and they were both signed to HBO, which thought it could match them and have a blockbuster unification fight. The rare unification bout between undefeated Americans got a lot of hype and several boxing writers traveled for it, but it unfortunately failed to deliver.
I covered the fight at ringside at the Pontiac Silverdome, a 95,000-seat dump in Pontiac, Michigan, outside of Detroit, for a fight that was set up for a tiny fraction of that. The fight drew only 6,247. The ring was situated near one of the end zones and the area was curtained off from the rest of the cavernous stadium. More memorable than the fight was the bitter cold and snowy weather for a match in which neither participant had any regional connection. But promoters Don King and Gary Shaw went there because for some absurd reason the stadium owner paid them a large site fee. Also memorable was that what should have been maybe a 10-minute drive (max) from the fight hotel to the stadium turned into something like a 45-minute odyssey because the van driver — whose sole job was to bring a group of people from the hotel to the stadium — had no idea where he was going and got lost. You can’t make this stuff up. The building was demolished in 2017 but I’ll always have the memories of covering a terrible fight in as miserable a location as I’ve ever covered one.
The fight lacked action, but it was competitive. Ultimately, Bradley unified two belts via 10th-round technical decision because Alexander, who had gotten the worst of a series of accidental head butts in a fight filled with them, was ruled unable to continue after taking another one in the 10th round. The fight was on Jan. 29, 2011 — 14 years ago on Wednesday. As bad as the fight was, the one redeeming aspect of it was that I returned home having secured a tremendously rare site poster for my collection.
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Photos: Cruz: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; Teraji-Akui: Naoki Fukuda; Alimkhanuly: No Limit Boxing Berlanga: Rey Del Rio/PBC
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That Bradley-Alexander fight was a fight freak's must see that turned into a typhoon of boredom. Your summary is hilarious, Dan, which eased the pain of reading through an Edgar Berlanga update. He'll be back to his old tricks of fighting fringe guys in March and calling out everyone else, acting like he's King fucking Kong, only to win boring decisions or get wiped out by the top guys ("Berlanga put up a far better fight than most expected he would" is hardly a ringing endorsement; he got beat up and lost 10 of 12 round only cuz Canelo routinely gives early rounds away). And he got a disgusting $10million for it.
Sorry... I see so much coverage for big mouths that aren't actually fighting top guys but constantly talk about it (Teofimo, Benn, Tank... Thurman's back at it, etc) or guys that aren't so good doing the same like they have a chance (Kambosses, Berlanga, and so on) it that I'd prefer to read about signed fights actually happening, or wishlists from guys that actually matter.