Cris Esqueda / Matchroom BoxingOne of them grasped their main event for all it was worth, gaining a spirited upset title victory to launch his career to new heights.
The other dwindled in the moment, took a second consecutive step back by doing just enough to win, but not enough to inspire roars from the crowd.
By defending his IBF lightweight belt so gamely versus Cuba’s Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz on Saturday night by majority decision, southern California’s Raymond Muratalla elevated himself to the heir apparent to a division that appears to be losing the 140lbs title contender Shakur Stevenson and the legally embattled Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Meanwhile, Zuffa Boxing’s main-event unbeaten Callum Walsh produced a vacant performance in defeating Carlos Ocampo by unanimous decision, and on the latest episode of ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today”, analysts Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri debated if the fledgling promotion should keep the Irish middleweight as a headliner.
Walsh, 16-0, also participated in a drowsy affair in the co-main event of the Terence Crawford-Canelo Alvarez promotion while defeating Fernando Vargas Jnr.
“If that’s the guy they’re looking to be the tip of the spear – maybe they’re going to change their mind,” the former welterweight champion Malignaggi said of Walsh. “When you’re sub-par on big platforms twice in a row, people will be looking for him to fail. They may want to take a different approach.”
While Walsh’s trainer Marvin Somodio excused the showing to BoxingScene on Friday after the bout by explaining “[Walsh] is only 24”, the former 140lbs champion Algieri excused Walsh’s showing against a foe who also previously took the WBC 154lbs champion Sebastian Fundora the distance.
“It was not the most scintillating main event,” Algieri said.
Muratalla’s was. In a showcase of insistent body pressure and a defiance of Cruz’s pure talent, the Fontana, California product gained the majority decision triumph and surprised many who expected him to get outclassed.
“That was a high-level IQ fight,” Malignaggi said. “[Muratalla] was not dazzled with Cruz’s hand speed. [Muratalla] was cutting him off, applying pressure.
“You could see Cruz drowning.
“He hadn’t been in a long-round fight like this. Muratalla was not impressed with what [Cruz] was doing. Cruz stopped being first.
“What a fight that was Saturday night.”
Algieri correctly defined it as a “will versus skill fight”, crediting Muratalla for being more assertive by getting more physical and landing the harder punches to upend the -250 betting favorite.
“Cruz never won the respect of Muratalla, and Muratalla didn’t fall off in the late rounds,” Algieri said. “The size advantage was more than the experience advantage.”
Indeed, when the fight ended, Muratalla spoke of moving to 140lbs to meet the Stevenson-Teofimo Lopez winner, and Cruz’s promoter Eddie Hearn said he may point the 30-year-old to 130lbs.
“Cruz has said he could make 130 – why wouldn’t you do that? – this is not your weight class,” Algieri said.
Malignaggi agreed that Cruz “has some decisions to make, but he could go to 130 and win a title”.
Muratalla also has a bevy of options, ranging from WBO champion and Top Rank stablemate Abdullah Mason and contenders Sam Noakes and William Zepeda to a jump to 140lbs to go after Stevenson, Lopez or the new WBC champion Dalton Smith.
Algieri told of how his ProBoxTV colleague and returning trainer of the year Robert Garcia told him of three uber-special fighters in his Moreno Valley, California, gym – super-flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, WBC interim 154lbs champion Vergil Ortiz Jnr, and Muratalla.
“It’s a factory of killers,” Algieri said.
