LAS VEGAS – Two blackened eyes, leaning back in a metal chair – apparently this is what it looks like to relax delightfully on cloud nine.
Raymond Muratalla, a product of the industrial steel town Fontana, California, took the position Saturday night, basking in the attention of what seemed like 100 video cameras, explaining how he retained his IBF lightweight belt by upsetting 2021 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz by majority decision at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
“Putting him through what he’s never been through,” Muratalla, 24-0 (17 KOs), said of his 114-114, 118-110, 116-112 victory over Cuba’s Cruz. “He’s never been in a fight like this. He’s never fought an opponent like me. And that showed.”
Muratalla, 29, felt he faced the best version of Cruz, 30, who followed his hundreds of amateur bouts by appearing in a world title fight in his seventh pro bout.
The fight was an all-action competition pitting Muratalla’s reliance on his body punching prowess and power punching advantage versus Cruz’s more rapid hand speed and precision punching.
“The first few rounds were study rounds, but then we told him, ‘You’ve got to pressure this guy, don’t give him any time to breathe,’” Muratalla trainer Robert Garcia said. “He was going against an Olympic gold medalist who was favored to win … Raymond had to be careful. But he followed all the instructions, he listened.”
Only the second, third, fifth and sixth rounds were scored unanimously for Muratalla by judges Max Deluca, Tim Cheatham and Steve Weisfeld, who had Cruz sweeping the first and eighth as the -250 betting favorite out-landed Muratalla by a single punch overall while Muratalla landed 13 more power punches.
“We knew coming in that as an Olympic gold medalist he was a good boxer. We were prepared for that,” Muratalla said.
That turned the bout into a character test and the bigger, harder punching Southern Californian leaned into the resilience, perseverance and doggedness that pervades his household and hometown.
Garcia, the 2024 Boxing Writers Association of America Trainer of the Year and a finalist for this year’s award, went 5-0 this weekend, counting a Zuffa Boxing card and three bouts in Long Beach, California.
He said training the likes of grinders like Marcos Maidana, Brandon Rios and Antonio Margarito brought that attitude to this bout.
“Raymond had to do something similar, had to have that dog in him. We got it out of him,” Garcia said.
Muratalla found those marching orders easy to follow.
“It’s always been my mindset. I stuck to it, stayed focused and stayed disciplined,” Muratalla said. “And all the success is showing.”
Muratalla was able to convincingly set aside the asterisk that the IBF full belt came to him as an interim champion last year when veteran three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko retired.
“Definitely feels better … [beating] the type of name [Cruz] he has, the gold medalist he is,” Muratalla said. “And yet, I did it. I was out there. I was focused on winning.”
Garcia told Muratalla of his own experience of winning the vacant IBF junior lightweight belt in 1998, a triumph that seemed a little hollow until Garcia first defended the belt by stopping a Cuban, Ramon Ledon.
So Garcia and his four-division world-champion brother, Mikey Garcia, affirmed to him after the bout, “This is the fight that made you a champion. Because you beat not only a gold medalist but a guy who was favored to beat you.
“Raymond knows he can be better. He knows he made a lot of mistakes. But he did enough, and now he’s on the top of the world.”
Cruz, meanwhile, could opt for another experience-building bout against a top contender at 135lbs, or he could pursue the belts being opened by Gervonta Davis and perhaps WBC champion Shakur Stevenson, or, as his promoter Eddie Hearn told BoxingScene, mull dropping to junior lightweight.
Afterward, Muratalla doubled down on his newfound name boost to say he’d prefer to fight the winner of Saturday’s WBO 140lbs title fight between champion Teofimo Lopez and unbeaten three-division champion Stevenson at Madison Square Garden.
From the high of his perch, anything is possible.
