PHILADELPHIA – Ricardo Salas never let Kent Cruz get going.

Salas took advantage of a quick start and Cruz’s mishandled weight cut to seize the advantage and send his opponent packing early in a second-round stoppage Saturday here at 2300 Arena.

Despite a 3in reach disadvantage, Salas spent the first round of a ProBox TV headliner breaking the distance and scoring with heavy hooks. Undeterred by Cruz’s jab landing squarely several times, Salas bulled forward in pursuit of the knockout.

In the second round, Salas pushed Cruz against the ropes and began whaling away at his flanks with arcing shots. Cruz soon dropped to a knee. 

Gritting through the pain of the body shots, Cruz rose for the privilege of being dropped twice more by fists to the midsection. Asked multiple times by referee Harvey Dock if he was sure he wanted to continue, Cruz answered the call each time. Dock waved the bout off at 2 minutes, 19 seconds of the second round with Cruz on his feet but shipping punishment. 

Salas moved to 21-2-2 (16 KOs), establishing a fine knockout streak over quality opponents in conjunction with his third-round stoppage of Roiman Villa last time out. A 26-year-old from Mexico, Salas enjoyed healthy crowd support from the Philadelphia crowd and will surely be game to batter any willing welterweight with his body shots.

Cruz, who missed weight by almost four pounds and told BoxingScene on Friday that he mistimed his weight cut, may have been undone by the error. His frame looked fleshy, suggestive of a difficult cut and a hurried rehydration. Though he was unbothered by head shots in the first round, the body punches took their toll immediately.

Cruz fell to 17-2-3 (11 KOs). He has a healthy mindset towards boxing, maintaining jobs outside the sport and planning to take his leave from the sport not a moment too late. Cruz even returns to work as soon as possible after his fights.

He’ll do so this time with nagging pain in his sides.

Owen Lewis is a former intern at Defector media and writes and edits for BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky.