Julio Cesar La Cruz - Cuban Star

[mannysavage]

Top Rank doesn't care about you unless you're American, Mexican, or PR.
They just barely started caring about Loma. Had Loma been any of those three nationalities he would have gotten the decision against Salido, but instead they screwed Loma in everyway possible.
People can say what they want about GGG and Loeffler, but they've done an excellent job of promotion. And apparently they want to sign more Eastern European and Asian fighters, so I hope Eastern European and Asian fighters start signing with them, because it's obvious to me they don't have a home at Top Rank.
It would be good investments for Loeffler and GGG. Countries like Russia and Kazakhstan are producing really good young talent right now. Uzbekistan is not far behind. Ukraine is struggling a little right now, unfortunately. But if Loma, Usyk, Gvozdyk (continue to) have success I'm sure Ukraine will be up there as well.
Right now Kazakhstan has one of the best Junior boxers I have ever seen, the kid is 14, he may be 15 now. Russia is also producing really good boxers with a ton of potential. I especially have my eye on one in particular boxer who keeps impressing me more everytime I watch him.
By the way, I don't think Mekhontsev and Murata are adapting too well to pro boxing. Both seem to be struggling. I think Gvozdyk has looked better as a pro and seems to be showing more pro potential, but Gvozdyk has barely gotten anything at all. Arum just recently started to promote him. Gvozdyk was lucky that Gilberto Ramirez got injured. Had Ramirez not been injured Gvozdyk would have been on fighting on the untelevised portion of a card somewhere just like Mekhontsev and Murata.

Imo, if i were a prospect with alot of potential, the only one id sign with would be Haymon, you get paid well, you get exposure on US free TV, and Haymon fighters probably has the best matchmaking out of all the promoters, he builds his fighters up, some more then others, meanwhile Bob Arum/Frank Warren milks their fighters with terrible mismatches, then put them in huge fights to cash their fighters out win or lose, Golden Boy protects their fighters like crazy and also has pretty crappy matchmaking, K2 seems decent but doesnt seem to have the connections to get their fighters the big fights/enough money on the table

[mannysavage]

The closest thing to Herol Graham I've seen, at least judging by the highlights - don't know if he just plays like that in spots or is it his regular style?
Hope he turns pro, I could care less about amateur boxing.

He makes the best amateur fighters look like they just laced up the gloves for the 1st time, he is on another level completely, so he just toys with them

[mannysavage]

La Cruz will probably get the Val Barker trophy.

I guess we were right, stellar perfomance in every fight, breezed all the way to gold and i would be really surprised if he doesnt get the Val Barker trophy, well see after the weekend i guess, Arlen Lopez has also looked really impressive and he seems to have scary power aswell, would probably make a great pro

Also was really impressed by Daniyar Yeleussinov, hes also special, but not as special as La Cruz, similar styles but La Cruz has more physical gifts and athletecism

And i feel so bad for Vassiliy Levit, his perfomance against Evgeny Tischenko was so damn impressive, i hadnt seen much of Levit before and i wasnt impressed by him in the Erislandy Savon fight (which was hard to call who won, but i personally felt Savon edged it), But in the Tischenko fight he had the perfect gameplan and did about everything right vs a taller and rangier opponent, but man was it heartbreaking to see him lose the fight when he dominated all 3 rounds and was on his way to knocking out Tischenko, and the ref even gave Tischenko over 1min to recover when he was barely able to stand up, such bull**** corruption it really ****ing pissed me off, and Levit was such a gentleman about it, asking the crowd to stop booing Tischenko so he could have his moment, personally id probably have snapped

[aldo5408]

Beautiful boxing this to me is 10x better than watching gg ko a no hoper

[kidbazooka]

I agree la cruz gotta be the best p4p a Mn amateur boxer today.

Hope he goes pro.

[TheCell8]

He's very good, but he doesn't have a very crowd pleasing style. He'll likely struggle to make it as a pro because of that.

[Prince Madison]

i wasnt that impressed with him, thought the other guy landed the more solid shots in the final. them little tap shots he does wouldnt count in the pro's.