By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn is going to find out tonight whether he spent his money wisely when lightweight prospect Andy Cruz faces Juan Carlos Burgos (35-7-3, 21 KO) in his 10 round debut at the Masonic Temple, Detroit. Cruz weighed in at 134.6 lbs, and Burgos at 134.2 lbs during Friday’s weigh-in for their co-feature bout.
Hearn recently signed the 2020 Olympic gold medalist Cruz, believing he’s got the goods to win a world title quickly.]
Weigh-in results for DAZN
- Andy Cruz 134.6 vs. Juan Carlos Burgos 134.2
- Jermaine Franklin 241.2 vs. Issac Munoz 257.4
- Alycia Baumgardner 129.4 vs. Christina Linardatou 129.8
Andy Cruz facing big pressure
At 28, Cruz has got to be moved at warp speed by Hearn because he’s not young enough to be slowly moved up the rankings for six years before he fights for a world title.
Hearn didn’t say whether he has an early escape clause in his contract with Cruz to release him if he doesn’t pan out. He let the 2016 Olympic gold medalist Daniyar Yeleussinov go quickly despite being unbeaten as a pro and dominating all his competition.
Yeleussinov was arguably a better amateur than Cruz and far more entertaining to watch, yet Hearn pulled the plug on him and let him go. Will this be Cruz’s fate?
Cruz will be 34 in six years, and that’s considered an ancient fossil for the lightweight division. The 35-year-old Vasily Lomachenko is still fighting at a high level, but he was a special talent. Cruz isn’t that same type of blue-chip amateur prospect.
Also, on tonight’s career, female super featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner weighed in at 129.4 for her title defense against Christina Linardatou. Former her part, the Greek Linardatou (12-1, 6 KOs) weighed in at 129.8
“The pressure on Andy Cruz is unbelievable, and you know the critics are just dying for a performance that goes ten rounds, and maybe it’s a little underwhelming to then jump on it, ‘Oh, the hypes not there.’ This is what happens,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing, discussing former Cuban amateur start Andy Cruz, who will make his debut against Juan Carlos Burgos on Saturday night.
If you’ve seen Andy Cruz fight, you’ll know why this guy could easily be a bust at the pro level. He can’t punch, is not tall, gets hit a lot, and isn’t an outstanding amateur.
In fact, he lost his last amateur bout to Delano James (13-15). Cruz’s amateur record is 140-9, with 10 knockouts. That’s a lot of losses, and the number of KOs shows that he can’t punch.
Will Cruz make a statement?
“On the flip side of that, if you can go out and make a statement within the hype, then you just explode,” said Hearn. “That happens for Andy tomorrow night; that happens with Alycia. That’s on them.”
It’s going to take more than beating the journeyman Burgos for Cruz’s popularity to “explode.” The fans aren’t suckers. They know Burgos is old and past it, so Cruz’s career won’t explode by beating him.
“We’ve done our job now. It’s going to be electric in there tomorrow night. It’s up to the fighters to make a statement and change their lives.
“I watched Andy Cruz in the Olympics. I was actually around my dad’s house, and we both watched in awe at what we saw. I said to my dad, ‘Can you imagine if this kid ever turned pro? He could win the world lightweight title now, but he’s Cuban. They never turn pro. What a shame.’
“Fast forward a year and a bit. We’ve signed Andy Cruz, one of the greatest amateurs of all time. A three-time world champion, Olympic gold medalist, and Pan-Asian Games gold champion gold medalist.
“So to step up in a 10 round fight on your debut against a three-time world title challenger is very difficult. What was also difficult is
Burgos is very tough and very durable,” said Hearn.
Speed is important
“So when you bring a young fighter through, you want them to go out and get the stoppage and look good,” said Hearn. “It’s going to be very hard to stop Burgos tomorrow night. Not many have done it. He had a draw recently with Tashiro Fierro.
“He’s about to fight for the world lightweight title. He [Burgos] went the distance with Keyshawn Davis. But if you can dominate this guy, beat him up, and stop him, which I think is too much pressure on Andy Cruz, then all of a sudden, it’s a major, major statement.
“But this is the perfect fight to find out the speed that you want to move, Andy Cruz. If he destroys Burgos, you know that you’ve got someone that’s maybe only two or three fights away from fighting for the world title. If he struggles a little bit, he could lose.”
Unfortunately, Cruz isn’t young enough to be moved slowly because he’s a lightweight, not heavyweight. If he doesn’t look good against Burgos, Hearn has no choice but to move him as quickly as possible because he can’t afford to wait.
“It’s very difficult to adapt from the years of that Cuban amateur regime to all of a sudden move into Philadelphia with Boza Ennis and becoming a different type of fighter, a Philly fighter, a professional fighter, but Andy’s got the mind to do it. So I don’t want to say too much about the development because that development really hinges on how he looks tomorrow night,” said Hearn.