By Jake Donovan


Featherweight prospect Luis Cruz enjoyed an impressive homecoming Friday evening in Juncos, Puerto Rico, stopping Eric Estrada in the sixth round of a battle between unbeaten featherweights.


The bout served as the main event of a telecast that was aired live on Telefutura.


Cruz opened the fight working behind the jab, while Estrada was content to hang on the outside and wait for an opening before working his way towards the Puerto Rican. It hardly turned out to be the wisest tactic, as Cruz had Estrada hurt at the end of the fight round. Cruz never had Estrada hurt early on, but was taking the rounds on sheer aggression alone.


All of the crowd favorite noise belonged to Cruz, who found a nice pace to maintain following his early round success. With each punch from Cruz came rabid applause from the partisan crowd on handing, through driving the Puerto Rican that much harder.


As the fight wore on, it was clear whose “0” was truly earned and whose was manufactured. Cruz grew more confident with each round, firing at will – though, in a controlled matter – from center ring while Estrada struggled to keep up.


The beginning of the end unfolded quickly in the sixth round. Cruz connected with a jab and straight right hand that had Estrada trying desperately to keep up. Cruz sensed his opponent was fading and proceeded to close the show.


A left jab, straight right hand began the rally for Cruz, who kept applying pressure as Estrada was in full retreat mode. A final left hand sent Estrada to the opposite side of the ring, before collapsing from a delayed reaction.


It was decided by the third man in the ring that no count was necessary, stopping the bout from the moment Estrada reacted the very wrong way in his trip to the canvas.


The official time was 1:10 of the sixth round.


Cruz, who only has fought three bouts outside of his native Puerto Rico, improves to 14-0 (11KO). Having only turned pro three years ago, the well-schooled Puerto Rican is one to watch for the future.


Perhaps not so much in the case of his opponent, as Estrada falls to 8-1 (3KO) in losing for the first time as a pro.


Undefeated super bantamweight prospect Jayson Velez had his way with Juan Cruz (no relation to Luis Cruz, fighting a well-disciplined fight en route to a third round stoppage in the televised co-feature.


Velez was in control every second of the fight before ending matters for good in the third round. A well-placed body shot earned the Puerto Rican the only official knockdown of the fight, as Cruz paused before taking a knee.


Cruz managed to beat the count and continue fighting, but absorbed a beating for the rest of the round. It was enough to mark the end of his night, as his corner elected to stop the fight in between rounds.


The official time was 3:00 of the third round.


Velez improves to 13-0 (11KO) with the win;  Cruz goes upside down for the first time in his career, falling to 5-6 (1KO) in losing his fifth straight bout.


With plenty of time to kill, local super featherweight prospect Wilfredo Bones (10-0, 9KO) received unexpected airtime. The Puerto Rican puncher was unable to maintain his perfect knockout to win ratio, instead settling for a six-round unanimous decision win over journeyman Robert DaLuz (12-28-3, 9KO), who has now carved out a career out of going rounds against top prospects.


Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.