By Ian S Palmer
Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz of Mexico returns to the ring this Saturday, July 29th when he takes on unbeaten Giovanni Cabrera of Seattle, Washington for the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight Title. The 12-rounder from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada is on the undercard of the Spence vs Crawford battle and can be seen on Showtime PPV in America as well as on the FITE Network while fans in the UK can catch it on TNT Box Office. Cruz last fought in September when he stopped Eduardo Ramirez in the second round while Cabrera was last in the ring in July when he beat Gabriel Flores Jr via a wide 10-round unanimous decision.
Spence Crawford Grand Arrivals
The 25-year-old Cruz made a name for himself on the world stage in December, 2021 when he dropped an exciting 12-round unanimous decision to WBA Lightweight Champion Gervonta Davis. Since then he’s bounced back with a fifth-round stoppage of Yuriorkis Gamboa for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Lightweight Belt and the second round stoppage of Ramirez. This brings Cruz’s record to a mark of 24-2-1 with 17 Ko’s and he’s boxed 128 rounds since making his pro debut in 2015.
Cruz is known for having pretty good power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 63 per cent but isn’t really regarded as a one-punch KO artist. Cruz stands 5-feet-4-inches tall with a 63-inch wingspan with his toughest opponents to date being Davis as well as an aging Francisco Vargas and former world champ Diego Magdaleno, who he stopped in just 53 seconds in 2020.
Cruz’s first pro defeat came at the hands of Luis Miguel Montano via an eight-round unanimous decision in February, 2016 while his lone draw was a six-round affair with Jose Capilla in 2017. Cruz has an aggressive non-stop punching style which makes him very dangerous as well as fan friendly. He’s won his last two fights by stoppage but went the distance in the previous three outings.
Cabrera is a 29-year-old relative unknown who makes the ring walk with a perfect record of 21-0 with 7 Ko’s. He has 123 rounds of experience under his belt since making his pro debut in 2016 following a brief amateur career and now fights out of Chicago. He measures 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 71-inch reach, which gives him a considerable five-inch height advantage over Cruz as well as seven inches in reach.
Cabrera has never fought for any type of pro title and has met limited opposition up to now so will be taking a step up in class this weekend. He doesn’t have much in the way of power with a current knockout ratio of 33.3 per cent and his biggest wins have been against Tyron Harris, Ray Lampkin, Carlos Padilla, Headley Scott, Antonio Escalante, Luis Porozo, Rene Tellez Giron, Elias Damian Araujo and Gabriel Flores Jr.
Prediction…
Cruz has the edge in power, aggression and experience and is quite a workhorse with a solid chin. However, he’ll need to work his way inside as Cabrera has fine boxing skills and a huge size advantage. What Cabrera lacks though is power so it’s going to be hard to keep Cruz off of him for 12 rounds. Cabrera may pick up some rounds early in the fight if he has a good chin, but I’m expecting Cruz to eventually catch up to him.
