Isaac Cruz takes good step; Terence Crawford crushes Spence

On a night Terence Crawford made history as the first undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era, lightweight Isaac Cruz took another positive step forward in his quest for an eventual title.

Crawford was the biggest story Saturday night at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. The WBO champ dominated Errol Spence Jr. in the SHOWTIME PPV main event to take Spence’s WBC, WBA and IBF championship belts.

Crawford had already knocked down Spence thrice before referee Harvey Dock finally stopped the bout at the 2:32 mark of the ninth round. With the victory, the former 140-pound undisputed champ made history as the first man to be an undisputed champ in multiple divisions.

Crawford showed greatness

“It means everything because of who I took the belts from,” Terence Crawford said after the fight. “They talked bad about me. They said I wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t beat these welterweights. 

“I just kept my head to the sky and kept praying to God that I would get the opportunity to show the world how great Terence Crawford is. Tonight, I believe I showed how great I am.”

The highly anticipated main event lived up to the hype. The co-main event between Isaac Cruz and Giovanni Cabrera was much closer, though. 

Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz improved to 25-2-1 with a split decision over Cabrera in the WBC and WBA lightweight title eliminator. The Mexico City native earned the decision on two of the judges’ scorecards, 115-112 and 114-113. Cabrera was ahead 114-113 on one judge’s scorecard, but that wasn’t enough. 

“I was superior tonight, but I do respect all of my opponents, and he was very good today,” Cruz said afterward. “I was frustrated a little. He thought it was my birthday because he was hugging me all night.”

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The referee deducted a point from Cruz because of headbutts in the eighth round. The 5-foot-9 Cabrera taunted the 5-foot-4 Cruz leading up to the fight by pointing out the height difference. Cabrera’s height advantage didn’t save him from Cruz’s power punches.

Isaac Cruz delivered more power shots

The ferocious Pitbull landed almost 100 more power punches than Cabrera. He had a 152-55 advantage in power punches. Cruz also landed a higher percentage of his punches, 31% to 13.5%.

Cruz has won three consecutive fights since losing to champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis in December 2021. It remains to be seen if Cruz’s victory over Cabrera was enough to garner a rematch against Tank Davis.

“I respect Gervonta, and at the same time I’m sure that I will have the opportunity to redeem myself,” Cruz said. “When that opportunity comes, I’ll be ready.”