By Nate Anderson: In one of the worse decisions in recent memory, featherweight Cristobal Cruz (36-11-1, 23 KOs) won a controversial 12-round majority decision over Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4, 12 KOs) at the Foxwoods Casino, in Mashantucket, Connecticut on Saturday night. Mashaba, ranked # 4 in the IBF featherweight division, appeared to win the fight by eight rounds to four on my card. However, the judges’ saw it differently, scoring the fight 114-114, 115-113 and 115-113, for Cruz.
No doubt, they were likely attracted to the huge volume of punches that Cruz through during the bout, some 1580 punches overall. However, most of the punches missed badly, and the ones that did land had little if anything on them. Mostly, they were weak arm punches which appeared to be no match for the blistering shots that Mashaba was landing to the head of Cruz. Again, it was a terrible decision.
Cruz looked good in the first round, as he unloaded with numerous shots to the body and head. Most of the punches were the weak variety, though, but Mashaba did little in the round to distinguish himself.
In rounds two-four, Mashaba landed scorching right hand shots to the head, and left hooks to the body. He found Cruz to be an easy target, for Cruz was constantly coming forward and thinking little of defense as he was so intent on attacking Mashaba.
Cruz did look good in the 5th round, landing just enough shots in the round to edge it on my scorecard. Mashaba almost matched him punch for a punch in the round, except that he failed to land any huge shots.
In rounds six though ten, Mashaba easily won the rounds – or at least appeared to – as he poured in a huge number of power shots that connected cleanly to the body and head of Cruz. For his part, Cruz was still landing weak punches, but he was missing a whole lot of them, and his form was just awful. He looked more like an amateur than a professional, in that he appeared to not know how to use proper form when punching.
In the 11th and 12th rounds, Mashaba’s output dropped off to next to nothing. It wasn’t as if he was tired, for he looked the same. Rather, he appeared to be sitting on his lead, perhaps thinking that he was so far ahead that he could afford to take it easy in the last two rounds. If that was indeed his thinking, I would be in agreement with him, because I saw Cruz as hopelessly behind and in need a of a knockout in order to win the fight. Whatever the case, Cruz did more than enough in the 11th to win the fight as he landed well with right hands in the round. Mashaba did next to nothing aside from throwing a half dozen punches.
In the 12th, however, Cruz staggered Mashaba with a left hook early in the round, and then flurried on him with arm punches. Naturally, Cruz failed to knock Mashaba out, and only succeeded in tiring himself out. This allowed Mashaba come back in the last minute of the round to land a big number of power shots, almost enough to make up for him being hurt. However, Cruz finished the bout in strong fashion due to Mashaba being staggered.
That said, it still wasn’t even close to being enough for Cruz to win the bout in my view. In the end, it was just a bad decision and the judges’ did Cruz no favors in rewarding him with this decision. All that it was accomplish is putting Cruz up against a top tier featherweight, which he clearly isn’t ready for, and will lead to him being badly beaten.