By Dan Ambrose: Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (25-2-1, 17 KOs) just barely dodged a bullet, squeaking by with a twelve round split decision win over the better-conditioned pure boxer Giovanni Cabrera (21-1, 7 KOs) in a WBA & WBC lightweight title eliminator last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vega, Nevada.
Judges’ scores:
– 114-113 – Cabrera
– 114-113 – Pitbull
– 115-112 – Pitbull
This writer had Cabrera winning 114-113, as Pitbull Cruz clearly lost six rounds, and a point deduction for head-butting Giovanni in the eighth, which was the clincher.
Pitbull Cruz’s performance wasn’t anything like what Mike Tyson was known for during the prime of his career. Cruz has been compared to Tyson, but this was nothing like how Iron Mike fought when he was 25 years old.
Cruz looked frustrated after he gassed out in the eighth round, which you can argue is why he chose to get rough with Cabrera to head-butt him. Cabrera was bouncing shots off Pitbull Cruz’s head left & right and nailing him with uppercuts.
Those shots looked like they had respectable power on them, and you could tell that Pitbull was bothered by them because he was fighting defensively from rounds 8 through 12.
The short, stocky 5’4″ Cruz was badly outboxed in two of the first three rounds by the taller 5’9″, but then he came on to get the better of the action in the middle of the rounds, landing heavy shots.
However, by the eighth round, ‘Pitbull’ Cruz had nothing left in the fuel tank and, surprisingly, was repeatedly backed up and punished on the ropes by the lighter hitting Cabrera.
After the fight, Pitbull Cruz called out Gervonta Davis, saying he wants to fight him next. Cruz has sounded like a broken record stuck on repeat since losing to Gevonta in December 2021.
Pitbull, 25, has been calling Tank nonstop, wanting to be blessed a second time after getting a monstrous payday fighting him.
Cruz’s money from his fight with Gervonta changed his life, making him wealthy. Obviously, the money that Pitbull Cruz made fighting Gervonta is not in the neighborhood of the $30 million that Ryan Garcia made, but it was enough to impact his life for the better.
In a picture of Pitbull Cruz’s house in Mexico, it looks like the presidential White House. It’s enormous, looking like a palace.
At some point, Pitbull will need to give up on his dogged pursuit of a rematch with Gervonta and start accepting some of the fight offers being made to him from Ryan Garcia, Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney, and many others.
Speaking of Ryan, he called him out last Saturday after his fight with Giovanni. That would be a big payday for Pitbull Cruz if he were willing to risk going up to 140 to face him.
Please bring on Cruz
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) July 30, 2023
“I respect Gervonta, and at the same time, I’m sure that I will have the opportunity to redeem myself,” said a needy-sounding Gervonta Cruz. “When that opportunity comes, I’ll be ready.”
“It was a nice fight. It probably wasn’t what the people wanted to see since he was relentless in getting into the boxing match, and thank God that the outcome was good,” said Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz to 210BoxingTV following his twelve round split decision win over Giovanni Cabrera last Saturday night.
“Anything can happen in Vegas. I wasn’t the exception. I don’t know what the judges were looking at because it was obvious that it should have been a unanimous decision,” said Pitbull Cruz when asked about his thoughts on his close split decision win, which many thought he should have lost.
“I think they [judges] are looking at different fights because Showtime is more fair to see what was actually happening in the ring.
“I have no idea, but I’m going to sit down and see what the next move is to take,” said Cruz on whether he believes he’ll get the fight that he’s been asking for in a rematch with Gervonta Davis next.
“I want to say thank you. I appreciate the fans and everything, and I’m going to keep up the good work to give better fights and give the best of myself,” said Pitbull Cruz.
