Aware that he had all eyes on him, Cuban boxer Andy Cruz took advantage of the stage at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas and this Saturday gave another recital. to the rhythm of “My name”one of the hits of the moment, by Bebeshito. The man from Matanzas, completely dressed in white and dancing from his entrance to the ring, defeated the Mexican Omar Salcido by unanimous vote and took another step towards a fight for a world belt at 135 pounds.
“Now this begins,” said Andy to the page Urban Boxing Network after a demanding fight, in which he had to work hard to overcome Salcido, who during the ten rounds withstood the Cuban’s attacks. However, the boy from Alacranes convinced judges Chris Migliore (99-91), Dave Morretti (98-92) and Zachary Young (98-92) and won in a crucial episode of his professional career.
One special fighter enters the building @andydiamondcruz#CruzSalcido | @DAZNBoxing | #PachecoNelson pic.twitter.com/boqBiM7Ivh
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) January 26, 2025
Lethal with his footwork, devastating with the intensity of his strike and fast in his counterattacks, Andy marked his dominance from the very beginning, first marking distances and opening the way with his jab, and then much more open to the exchange that Salcido proposed.
The Antillean once again proved that he can handle himself well in all registers. When he wanted to fight from the outside, he showed his exquisite mobility and intelligence so as not to be surprised, and when the match required him to enter hand-to-hand, he put together combinations that lifted the audience from their seats.
“It was a master class,” they assured from the specialized site Boxing Scene, where they described Andy as an “elite contender, entertaining, sophisticated and with the ability to fight with great offensive skills”, this last detail highly praised among the new batch of Cuban boxers who have entered professionalism.
As an added point, Cruz demonstrated the resistance of his jaws. This section is one of the ones that most strengthens the Cuban in the face of upcoming matches, since he has always been recognized for his art in disarming the opponent’s plans, but it was necessary to evaluate his ability to respond against a man with a good punch.
In this sense, Salcido was a test by fire, since 14 of his 22 professional fights had ended prematurely. True to that aggressive style, the Mexican did everything he could, fulfilling the plan of his trainer José Benavídez Sr., who before the fight had said that the only possibility of defeating Andy was by knocking him out. But his pupil ended up exhausted, closer to falling to the canvas than to knocking down his opponent, although he resisted the ten rounds.
Precisely, the defeat against Andy Cruz is the first blow that Benavídez Sr. receives from Cuban boxing in a week in which there is still the duel between his son, David Benavídez, and David Morrell Jr. from Villa Clara. That fight will be held next Saturday, February 1 at the T-Mobile Arena, also in Las Vegas.
The rivals in the front row
The Cosmopolitan was full of great figures of professional boxing, including the star Terrence Crawford, undefeated after 41 outings in the ring. The 37-year-old northerner met Andy and they took a photo that the Cuban will surely keep as a spectacular memory of another triumphant night.
But Crawford was not the only star who experienced in the front row the show of a billboard whose highlight was the duel between Diego Pacheco and Steven Nelson. In fact, at the end of their fight, Andy did a round of greetings around the ring and ran into two of the champions in his division: the Americans Shakur Stevenson and Keyshawn Davis.
The first shook his hand in congratulations, but Davis was more reticent and they barely bumped fists. The rivalry between Cruz and Keyshawn goes back a long way, as the Cuban defeated him on three consecutive occasions between 2019 and 2021 in amateur competitions.
He first took it out of circulation in the final of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, and that same year, just a month later, he repeated the dose in the discussion of the World Championship crown held in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
The icing on the cake for Andy in his particular face-to-face against Keyshawn Davis came at the Tokyo Olympics, where the Yumurino destroyed everyone in his path, including the northerner, who fell in the final with a vote of 4-1.
Unhappy are @Andydiamondcruz #PachecoNelson | @DAZNBoxing pic.twitter.com/vwBiY80Uds
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) January 26, 2025
Now, with the rising pace of the Antillean and Davis’s already established lineup, it is not unreasonable to think about future duels between the two. In fact, after this victory (his fifth as a professional), Andy Cruz leaves the table ready to look for a fight for a world belt title against the main exponents of the 135 pounds. William “Camarón” Cepeda, Shakur Stevenson, Gervonta Davis and Keyshawn Davis himself are some of the Cuban’s potential opponents.
“In my time in professional boxing I have been climbing and this is one more step that I hope will lead me to great things in the future. My goal has always been to face more difficult fighters in each presentation,” said Andy, who may have the opportunity this year to achieve the dream match for a lightweight belt.
