If Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz backs off his position, that he’s moving away from the idea of a sudden rematch with Lamont Roach Jnr, Roach wants that second meeting in his hometown.
On the heels of fighting popular pay-per-view draw Gervonta “Tank” Davis to a March draw before a pro-Davis crowd in Brooklyn and then scoring a second draw with Cruz Saturday in San Antonio, Roach co-promoter Garry Jonas said in a prepared statement Wednesday that he’d want a Cruz rematch in Roach’s hometown of Washington D.C.
While indicating – like Cruz – that Roach would prefer a rematch with Davis next, Jonas (who owns ProBoxTV and BoxingScene) characterized his recent junior lightweight champion’s position this way:
“We’re also happy to look at a rematch with ‘Pitbull’ in D.C. Lamont has gone into two hostile environments in a row and got two draws,” Jonas said.
“He deserves to fight in front of his fans next time. We are going to do whatever it takes to make that happen when he comes back from injury.”
Jonas confirmed that a post-fight examination revealed Roach broke his right hand during the fight, in which he rallied during the second half of the bout to counter the deficit of getting knocked down by Cruz in the third round.
“We are very proud of Lamont. It was a tremendous fight and, of course, we felt he won,” Jonas said.
“A draw in Texas in front of a huge pro-Mexican crowd validates how well Lamont fought. What’s even more impressive is that Lamont fought the last half of the fight with one hand. He … showed tremendous heart.”
Cruz told BoxingScene Tuesday that he believes he won the fight, with his advisor Sean Gibbons adding, “We don’t care what the judges say,” and that he is eyeing either his own rematch with WBA lightweight champion Davis or a shot at Ryan Garcia later this year should Garcia wrest the WBC welterweight belt from champion Mario Barrios on February 21 in Las Vegas.
Davis backed out of a planned August rematch with Roach as domestic violence charges circled, and he was then dropped from a planned November exhibition with Jake Paul when a woman sued Davis.
“Lamont will have to let that heal properly, which means no short turnaround for him,” Jonas said. “We still have a rematch clause with ‘Tank,’ but there’s a lot of uncertainty there.”
