Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and Lamont Roach Jnr are uniting for a December 6 Prime Video pay-per-view main event and filling some of the voids left by their currently “discombobulated” sport.
In a 140lbs title bout for Cruz’s interim WBC belt, WBA super-featherweight champion Roach makes his second consecutive move up in weight after fighting lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis to a March 1 draw that many believed Roach won.
The Premier Boxing Champions bout will take place at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, according to Cruz advisor Sean Gibbons, with a news conference scheduled there Wednesday. BoxingScene reported earlier Thursday that middleweight champions Erislandy Lara and Janibek Alimkhanuly are in talks to stage a three-belt unification in the night’s co-main event.
“There’s the potential for a new face of Mexican boxing to emerge, and ‘Pitbull’ Cruz has the opportunity on December 6 versus Lamont Roach to defend his belt and become that fighter … ,” Gibbons told BoxingScene exclusively Thursday. “This is the moment you fight for, and 2026 is the time for a new face to replace Canelo Alvarez as that face to step into the Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence weekends and shine.”
Alvarez was defeated last month on the independence weekend by new undisputed super-middleweight champion Terence Crawford, and it’s believed that when he recovers from an injury, he’ll fight next in Saudi Arabia for powerful boxing financier Turki Alalshikh.
Mexico’s popular former lightweight title challenger and ex-140lbs champion Cruz, 28-3-1 (18 KOs), captured the interim belt by defeating replacement opponent Omar Salcido by unanimous decision in July in Las Vegas.
Both he and Roach wanted another crack at WBA lightweight champion Davis – Cruz lost a 2021 unanimous decision to Davis – but Davis has instead taken a lucrative exhibition fight in Miami against cruiserweight contender and YouTuber Jake Paul.
“We hoped for Gervonta, but this is a better fight against the guy in Lamont Roach who the fans and everyone but the New York state boxing commission believe beat Gervonta Davis,” Gibbons said. “We know Roach wants to bang, and Cruz only knows one way to fight.
“You want fights where you know the fans will be fine spending their money for it, and this is absolutely a fight you’d be happy to pay for … San Antonio is getting a serious gift from boxing for Christmas.”
As many high-profile bouts have deserted the U.S. for the Middle East under Alalshikh, PBC is offering a pay-per-view card featuring Americans with Sebastian Fundora defending his WBC 154lbs belt against former welterweight champion Keith Thurman in Las Vegas.
And then it returns with Cruz versus Roach Jnr, 25-1-2 (10 KOs), who should’ve had a knockdown against Davis before that lapse by judge Steve Willis cost him on the scorecards.
The Washington D.C. product aimed for a summer rematch, but Davis was involved in legal trouble and then turned to Paul, after which he says he will retire. Instead of accepting a stay busy bout against Gabriel Flores, Roach lands another pay-per-view main event.
“Lamont’s not getting the rematch at this time, but he wants the big fights and this is the best one he can get,” said Garry Jonas, the CEO of ProBoxTV and BoxingScene whose company co-promotes Roach with the fighter’s father Lamont Roach Snr’s company, No Excuse Promotions.
“He looks forward to a fun, entertaining fight. On this kind of stage against ‘Pitbull’ Cruz, it’s the perfect opportunity to prove that what he accomplished [in March] is not a fluke and that he’s that guy.”
Told that Gibbons foresees Cruz achieving a victory that makes his fighter Alvarez’s successor as Mexico’s biggest-drawing fighter in the U.S., Jonas said, “We predict an outcome that’s similarly important for Lamont because Canelo got his ass whooped by Crawford, and ‘Pitbull’ will get his whooped by Roach.”
Roach is 30, while Cruz is 27.
“It’s all or nothing for these guys,” Gibbons said. “Yes, ‘Pitbull’ has had some good and bad nights, but as you look at how discombobulated boxing in the U.S. has become with American boxing needing these big fights and Canelo on his way out …this is also another big moment for ProBox and what it’s been doing.
“It’s a dangerous fight for both, so I just pushed all my chips to the center of the poker table with this one, and let’s see how they roll.”
