By Jim Dower: Making his second defense of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight title, champion Cristobal Cruz (39-11-1, 23 KO’s) defeated his Jorge Solis (37-2-2, 27 KO’s) by a narrow 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Palenque de Gallos, Tuxtla Gutierrez, in Chiappas, Mexico.
The final judges’ scores were 113-110, 113-110 and 113-111. The fight was marred by fouls from both sides with Cruz being docked two points in the 3rd for repeatedly shoving Solis to the canvas and then Solis being docked 1 point in both the 5th and 7th rounds due to low blows. The fight was a difficult one for the 5’8 ½” Solis, who generally likes to use his height to box from the distance.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do much of that on Saturday night with Cruz constantly rushing him and throwing wild shots from various angles. Solis took a while to adapt to the style, but eventually became somewhat of a matador, and compensated by moving to the side and picking Cruz off during his wild charges.
Still, Cruz’s aggression was hard to deal with and he was able to get the better of Solis in many of the rounds with his high punch output and head first style of coming forward. Most of the second half rounds were very close making it hard to tell who was getting the better of who. Cruz generally threw and landed most of the shots in the fight, but Solis was able to land the cleaner, more precise shots.
Cruz, 32, came out fast in the opening round charging Solis like a mini bull, flailing his arms and missing with most of his punches. However, Solis was unable to get many of his shots off because of Cruz’s wild straight ahead attacks. Almost all of the punches that were thrown in the opening round belonged to Cruz, who stayed on top of Solis with his fast charging attacks.
Cruz continued to give Solis the business in the 2nd round, lowing his head and sprinting at Solis with both arms firing shots from different directions. There was no particular punch that Cruz relied on during this time, because the shots came from so many different angles.
It seemed like a wild man out there and Solis, used to winning most of his fights, looked confused and worried and not sure how to deal with Cruz’s aggressive attacks. In the 3rd round, Cruz upped the pace of his attacks, furiously going after Solis and at one point shoving him to the canvas.
Solis got up off the deck, sporting a cut over his left eye. The action was then stopped to allow the doctor to examine Solis’s cut, which had occurred from a head butt. In the meantime, Cruz had a point deducted for shoving Solis to the canvas.
However, later on in the round, Cruz once again shoved Solis to the canvas and just like before, he had a point taken away for the move. Overall, Cruz appeared to win the round due to his much busier work. However, the two point deductions gave the round to Solis.
In the 4th round, Solis fought effectively, gliding around the ring like a dance, picking off Cruz’s wild attacks with jabs and body shots. It looked as if Solis had discovered the secret how to discharge Cruz’s attacks. Once again, there was another head class between the two fighters, but no additional cuts opened up on Solis.
In the 5th round, Solis dropped Cruz to the canvas twice with low blows. The firs time Solis got a free pass. However, on the second occasion, Solis was docked a point. Cruz went on to win the round by landing slightly more punches in the round. In the 6th and 7th, Cruz attacked Solis like a wild man, rushing forward and hitting him with big shots before being tied up by the taller fighter.
Solis was again docked a point in the 7th for landing another low blow. In the 8th round, Solis went back to his boxing, moving around the ring and picking off Cruz’s attacks with jabs and counter shots. In rounds nine through eleven, Cruz outworked Solis, upping his work rate and attacking him constantly.
Solis tried to fend him off but was unable to have much luck keeping Cruz on the outside. In the 12th, Solis and Cruz fought toe-to-toe through much of the round with a re-energized Solis getting the better of the action. Solis looked great while brawling and it’s too bad he didn’t stand his ground like this in the earlier rounds, because he might have been able to pull out the win had he fought like this from the beginning.