Boxing
Lamont Roach Jr. vows Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz will be left ‘feeling tamed’ after their fight
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Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz is a boxer whose in-ring moniker fits him spot on. Once the bell rings, Cruz is like a ‘Pitbull’ off the leash with a charging forward, smothering style amplified by more bite than bark.
Lamont Roach Jr. is well aware.
Though in challenging for Cruz’s WBC interim super lightweight world title at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, and live on pay-per-view Saturday night, Roach Jr. vows a different result for ‘Pitbull.’
“He’s going to be left feeling tamed, for sure,” Roach Jr. told DAZN News in an interview during the buildup to this weekend’s headlining bout. “He’s not going to be the vicious, rabid ‘Pitbull’ by the time the fight’s over with.
“Round 1, Round 2, he might be but it’s going to go downhill for sure,” Roach Jr. tacked on for good measure. “We got a nice game plan, we’re going to execute it, and I promise you, a lot of people are going to appreciate my performance.”
Roach Jr. (25-1-2) has reason to be brimming with confidence. The Washington D.C. native put in the work training for Cruz’s nonstop pressure, though he concedes it wasn’t easy simulating for a fighter who stands just 5-foot-4.
“It’s not like we have a clone or anything in camp but we have some guys that are similar in stature,” Roach Jr. said leading up to the fight. “We have some guys that are big power punchers, big looping power punchers. We have some guys that have relentless pressure so we try to bring in all aspects of his game and bring it into camp.”
After fighting Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis to a highly-controversial majority draw in March, Roach Jr. was banking on a rematch with the WBA lightweight world champion. But when those plans were scrapped, Roach Jr. soon set his sights on ‘Pitbull.’
Denied a victory many felt he was deserving of against Davis, Roach Jr. believes defeating Cruz in convincing fashion will spark the fuse toward a skyrocketing trajectory in 2026.
“He has the accolades. He’s definitely a top-level fighter,” Roach Jr. said about Cruz (28-3-1, 18 KOs). “‘Pitbull’ opens the doors for a lot of things and one of those things would be lining me up for a world title shot at 140 for [WBC super lightweight world champion] Subriel Matias so that’s something we definitely thought about.
“If anything presents itself that is not as good as that shot,” he continued, “that’s what we’re going to go for, for sure.”
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