Henry Armstrong, Roberto Duran, Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Manny Pacquiao have all reigned as a lightweight champion.
Long one of the sport’s glamour divisions, there is suddenly a void at the top given the mass exodus. WBC titlist Shakur Stevenson is set to face lineal and WBO 140lbs champion Teofimo Lopez next weekend in New York City, while Gervonta Davis is literally nowhere to be found as he was stripped of his WBA title and once again in legal trouble.
Recently crowned WBO 135lbs titlist Abdullah Mason certainly shows promise. His competition at the top of the division will be on display this weekend. IBF titlist Raymond Muratalla 23-0 (17KOs) meets Cuba’s 2021 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz 6-0 (3KOs) for his first title defense this Saturday night on DAZN from Fontainebeau Resort in Las Vegas.
It’s a compelling match pitting the 29-year-old Muratalla, who’s been schooled through 113 professional rounds and in the famed gym of repeat trainer-of-the-year candidate Robert Garcia and Cruz, 30, who absorbed the legendary Cuban teachings to strike Olympic gold and remain unbeaten through some rigorous professional tests.
“It’s not going to be an easy fight – it’s a challenge,” Garcia told BoxingScene last week as Muratalla prepared for his final sparring session before the bout. “Raymond’s ready. He has been doing this for many years. From that, he knows nothing comes easy.
“Whatever Andy brings, we have the confidence because this is a 12-round title fight. Andy’s never been in that type of fight. He’s an Olympic gold medalist, but those are three-round fights. Going in there for 12 rounds against a champion who has great power and speed, I don’t see Cruz being faster than Raymond.”
Muratalla inherited the IBF belt upon Vasiliy Lomachenko’s retirement, after defeating Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev in May in San Diego for the interim belt.
Cruz was elevated to the mandatory position following impressive, offensive-driven showings against Omar Salcido and Hironori Mishiro last year.
Muratalla respects how adept Cruz performs in the sweet science, but he’s not convinced the challenger can endure with evasiveness and ring smarts over 12 rounds.
In a recent conversation discussing the January 31 Stevenson-Lopez fight, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Lampley asked of boxer-puncher fights, “Who usually wins?” Lampley then proceeded to detail a list of such clashes, and while Muratalla-Cruz wasn’t mentioned, it applies.
However, the great Duran once joined some sportswriters over a beer at a New York hotel, insisting he was the better lightweight champion than Mayweather and regaled them with his plan to destruct Mayweather in a bout that never occurred by cutting off the ring, holding and pounding the hell out of his torso.
“Both are good points,” Muratalla said. “Me just being in the ring with this mindset of this fight and my future will be enough to beat [Cruz]. Whatever way I decide to win will beat him.”
Garcia hinted Muratalla will catch up with Cruz and wear him down with menacing punches and pressure.
Muratalla indicated as much while being asked how he tailored his preparation for Cruz.
“For me, it’s just about being in tip-top shape, working on everything – speed, power, movement,” Muratalla said. “Working on all aspects of boxing gets me to complete myself. I’m confident, definitely ready to go, and show all this.
“He’s not dangerous. He’s a good boxer and knows his way around the ring. Me being in tip-top shape is going to be enough to beat him. However it comes, I’m looking forward to it.”
Should Muratalla retain his belt, he will stand nearly atop a lightweight landscape that includes Mason - his younger Top Rank stablemate - while 23-year-old Floyd Schofield Jnr is in line to replace Davis, who has a Florida warrant out for his arrest on alleged battery, attempted abduction and kidnapping.
The events provoke a likely changing of the lightweight guard.
“Whatever comes afterward, I’m just focused,” Muratalla said.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
