Newly crowned WBA super-lightweight world champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) has been added to the Terence “Bud” Crawford-Israil Madrimov card as he’s set to defend his title against Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela on Saturday night, August 3rd at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, California.
Since entering the professional ranks back in March 2015, the Mexico City, Mexico native Isaac Cruz always dreamed of winning a world title. The dream became a reality on March 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Pitbull Cruz received his first opportunity to fight for championship gold back in December 2021 when he challenged Gervonta “Tank” Davis for the WBA (Regular) lightweight title. Cruz was very competitive, but unfortunately, he lost by way of unanimous decision.
Pitbull would bounce back by posting two consecutive knockout victories over Yuriorkis Gamboa and Eduardo Ramirez. Cruz would go on to earn a split-decision victory over Giovanni Cabrera. After pulling off the narrow victory, Cruz proceeded to move up one weight-class for the chance to compete for a world title.
In his first fight at 140 on the night of March 30th, Isaac Cruz challenged Rolando “Rolly” Romero for Romero’s WBA super-lightweight world title. Pitbull Cruz got off to a great start as he landed a hard left hand shot that had Romero on wobbled legs.
Cruz dictated the pace of the fight as he consistently pressed forward and landed clean power shots. In the eighth round of the bout, Cruz landed a flurry of solid shots that forced referee Tom Taylor to step in and put a halt to the contest.
Isaac Cruz started his professional boxing journey in 2015, and nine years later the 25-year-old has achieved his goal of becoming a world champion. Now, the man known as Pitbull is ready to make his first title defense against a fellow Mexican boxer who plans on winning his first world title at the expense of Cruz.
Jose Valenzuela made his pro debut back in September 2018 when he defeated Humberto Tellez via unanimous decision. He would go on to win his next eleven bouts. On September 4, 2022, Jose Valenzuela was set to face Dominican boxer Edwin De Los Santos.
At the 1:14 mark in round number two, Valenzuela connected with a left-hand shot that sent De Los Santos down to the canvas. De Los Santos was able to get up, and thirty seconds later, he scored a knockdown of his own when he hit Valenzuela with a flurry of shots.
Early in the third round, De Los Santos landed a hard left-hand shot that sent Valenzuela back down to the canvas. Once again, Valenzuela was able to get up, but seconds later, he was hit with another big left hand that forced the referee to step in and stop the match.
Six months later Jose Valenzuela would drop his second fight in a row as Chris Colbert was awarded a controversial unanimous decision. In the rematch against Colbert, Valenzuela didn’t give the judges the opportunity to decide the fight, as he proceeded to knock Chris Colbert out in the sixth round.
Now the 24-year-old Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs) is ready to take advantage of his opportunity to fight for a world title. On Wednesday, April 24th, in New York City, Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and Jose Valenzuela had their first official faceoff.
The Cruz vs Valenzuela WBA world title bout features two aggressive boxers who are guaranteed to have a fire fight when they meet in the center of the ring. This exciting bout is part of a stacked card that will be Turki Alalshikh’s first “Riyadh Season” event in America.