By Cliff Rold
27-year old 2000 Puerto Rican Olympian Orlando Cruz (16-0-1, 7 KO) picked up the best win of his career on Friday night at the Million Dollar Elm Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, battling undefeated power puncher Leonilo Miranda (30-1, 28 KO) on even terms before landing a single, devastating left hand in the fifth to keep the treasured “0” in own loss column. The 26-year old Mexican Miranda never saw it coming but will see clearly as his high standing in the WBC (#8) and WBA (#5) Featherweight ratings is likely to disappear in short order.
Both men weighed in one pound over the division limit at 127 lbs.
Cruz, the shorter man at 5’4 to Miranda’s 5’7, started with hands high and struggled right away with the jab of Miranda. By the midway point of the first, he began to find a range for his right jab, doubling the blow and landing. Near the thirty second mark, a Miranda counter left found its mark against a sliding Cruz and another would land in the last ten seconds of a tactical opening frame.
The left of Miranda landed again in the first minute of the second but Cruz’s movement kept him away from consistent punishment. Just past the halfway point Cruz was able to blind Miranda with a jab and land his own left to the chin. Another counter left for Cruz set up a lead right and a pair of landing flurries. A Miranda left sailed over the head of Cruz in the closing seconds and the bout looked even early.
Cruz began in combination again to start the third and used his gloves and forearms to smother the offensive attentions of Miranda. As the seconds ticked by, Miranda increased his punch output and pressured Cruz to the ropes, landing a right to the body and arcing left to the chin. Cruz got a momentary reprieve when his mouthpiece was dislodged in the closing minute but walked into a right when action resumed and ate three left hands in the closing seconds.
A Cruz counter right uppercut snapped Miranda’a head back in the opening seconds of the fourth but he was quickly returned to his back foot. Miranda chopped away with the left in close and hammered a Cruz protective cup at well above the navel level twice. Trading jabs in the final minute, Miranda again would punish Cruz with the left but the smaller man responded with his own chopping left to draw blood from the right eye of Miranda.
The cut was the least of his problems in a fatal fifth. A lazy jab and errant slide to his right moved Miranda into a perfectly timed, laser sighted left from Cruz. Caught on the point of the chin, Miranda’s torso whipped forward before collapsing flat towards the mat, his head resting just in front of the ring ropes. Miranda rolled over and attempted to rise near referee Steve Smoger’s count of seven. Steadying himself along the ropes he was still leaning and looking for his legs as Smoger reached ten at :39 of round number five.
Prior to the main event, promising Lightweight prospect Marvin Quintero (15-1, 12 KO), 131 ½, of Tijuana, Mexico may have ended the future prospects of the one highly regarded Nick Casal (18-4-1, 14 KO), 131 ½, of Niagra Falls, New York. Exciting early, the bout became increasingly one-sided before the 23-year old Casal elected not to go on prior to the fourth of eight scheduled rounds. It was Casal’s fourth loss in his last seven bouts and first by stoppage.
Both men went to work right away with heavy handed intentions, Casal lacing Quintero with a pair of power shots upstairs near the ropes before the taller Quintero could move the fight back to center ring and establish his jab. Consistent trading continued with both men closing rounds. Quintero landed a stiff southpaw right only for Casal to respond with a right on the chin which wobbled Quintero.
Casal raced forward at the bell for the second and took a slashing left for his trouble. Quintero continued to score more with shots straight down the pipe but Casal maintained pressure landing harsh hooks in counter. A right hook whipped across the chin of Casal inside the second half of the round but at the minute mark Casal responded with a crashing right. They traded power shots at center ring in the final minute, Quintero circling and Casal looking for spots to leap in. Quintero closed the frame with a pair of hard right hooks.
Quintero was pressured into the ropes right away in the third but dealt the leather with three landing hooks against a Casal whose head was down. The round would continue in similar fashion as Casal’s wider attempts met impotent result while Quintero landed an assortment of blows. Right hooks and sharp lefts kept Casal off balance and by the final minute the bout began to resemble a beating. Combination blows rained down on his chin and he appeared hurt in the final ten seconds as a left and then right hook found either side of his skull.
Casal had experienced enough. His cornermen settled to provide him advice but Casal took charge right away. Stating his legs weren’t there, Casal could be heard to say, “That’s it. That’s it.” Predictably the fans booed his capitulation but the punishment of the previous round made Casal’s decision appear the better part of valor. The referee was Mike England.
In the televised opener, fans were treated to their first look at a potential future star. Weight issues kept 20-year old former U.S. National Amateur, National Golden Gloves, and two-time World Amateur champion, Gary Russell Jr. (1-0, 1 KO), 127, of Washington, D.C. out of the 2008 Olympic rings in Beijing. In Russell’s professional Featherweight premier, 23-year old Antonio Reyes (3-3), 125, of Dallas, Texas got a taste of just how hurtful a blow to Team USA it was. Over three rounds, Russell showed off a range of skills, athletic gifts and power worth watching going forward.
Russell immediately showed off blazing hand speed, starting aggressive with a pair of hard southpaw right jabs and a missed left behind them. He didn’t miss much more. A sizzling left blasted into the face of Reyes, later bettered by counter rights to head the body. Near the one minute mark, a left brought return fire from Reyes but Russell countered well and with thirty seconds left nailed Reyes with yet another left to the face and a right to the body. Four power shots would land in the final ten seconds but Reyes was game, clipping the debutante with a right hook of his own.
At the bell for the second, Russell took a deep breath and moved forward only to find Reyes still full of fight with a pair of shots to the body. Russell shrugged them off and returned to the lefts high and rights low which had been successful in the first. One minute into the round, a blocked left set up a perfect right hook and then a flurry of blows including another lead hook to wobble Reyes. Two clean rights from Russell in the final minute brought another game effort from Reyes but Russell slipped and blocked. In the final ten seconds, the Olympian nearly finished, teeing off with right hooks and sending a legless Reyes face first to the floor. Referee Steve Smoger stepped in with a count and Reyes waited until the toll of eight, nose bloodied, to rise after the bell and nod his desire to continue.
Warned in the corner by Smoger that the fight was on the verge of being stopped, Reyes bravely came forward for the inevitable. Outmatched, Russell landed a pair of straight lefts, a right to the body and then a further series of blows as Reyes covered up. Smoger leapt in to halt the action at :21 seconds of round number three. It was reported later in the evening that Reyes had suffered a broken jaw.
The card was televised in the United States on premium cable outlet Showtime’s ShoBox series.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com