Comments Thread For: Andy Cruz could join rare company among Cuban Olympic champs

[BoxingUpdates]

While 29 Cuban boxers have won 42 Olympic gold medals, only four of them have won professional world titles. Dustin Wiens explores the careers of the 14 gold medalists who did turn pro.
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[CubanGuyNYC]

I think Andy probably will.

[Moz_boxing]

Solis was so promising, i remember him stopping Haye in the amateurs, but his downfall was due to the same factor as for almost everyone else on that list and that is a lack of diszipline. Most of these guys are not mentally strong and dsziplined by nature, they are forced by the tough system cuba has in place for their athletes and as soon as they escape this system they often show their true nature and becoming lazy and fat in the process.

Lara is one of the exception to this let's see what happens with Morrell, Cruz and Hernandez as they all seem promising.

[brankobugarski]

I expect Andy to win and win convincingly. In fact, I can't believe that Muratalla's handlers have allowed him to face Andy so quickly after getting the title and before making some more money. In my eyes this is a suicide.

[Pete_The_Man]

RIP Muratalla.

Cruz does everything at an elite level to me.

But he’s a super skilled black cuban fighter.

He has tremendous speed, footwork, defense.

But he’s a super skilled black cuban fighter.

Skilled defensive fighters (Usyk, Lomachenko) are fine if you're white, if you're black ? Different story. Most people don't appreciate a great skilled black boxer as much as they do a white one (EG Floyd) and rather watch him brawl. It's just like in baseball, most fans want to see a bases loaded gram slam but find "boring" a great pitcher who throws a near perfect game

There’s always a racial problem with black cuban fighters and their lack of support.

95% of US based Cubans are white and are not into boxing, their main passion is Baseball and they have a "boxing is for blacks", boxing is not "our thing" mentality. A lot of people don’t realize that white Cubans like Andy Garcia, Marco Rubio, Fidel Castro, Cameroon Diaz is what most cubans look like. They make up around 65%-70% of Cubans.

But find me a white Cuban boxer who looks like them ? ….I’ll wait. This is why 98% of Cuban fighters are black. Cuba's main boxing supporters are their Afro-Cubans and 95% of them are inside Cuba. So Cubans fighters are always fighting on away soil.

They don't have the hispanic demographic support like Mexicans or Puerto Ricans fighters receive and the Cuban demographic in the US is not as big. Also cuban fighters fall behind because they fight to the level of their competition, because they are so focused on defense and not getting hit. They don't have a level to shift to because their offense isn't as domineering and deep as other elite level fighters (as I say that's ok if you're a white fighter)

So Cruz will get the Rigo treatment.

• "He doesnt sell tickets."
• "He’s boring."

But Cruz is really good, which makes him a high risk, low reward fighter that will be avoided like the plague. I can’t see even the likes of Shakur,Teofimo, Gervonta, Devon rushing to fight him and Keyshawn is about to defect to Cuba.

To be honest Cruz is actually way more offensive than most cubans but like most Cuban fighters he can't speak a lick of English. Cubans remind me of filipinos in the sense that they didnt make an impact as a group until one guy put them on the world map as an emerging pool of pro talent. First Pac-Man then Nonito Donaire.

Look at Cotto, he found his voice and fanbase when he spoke English and Spanish. We can say the demand to speak English is unfair, well maybe if the moustache one from Germany had won WW2 we'd all be speaking German but the most influential empires of the last couple of centuries, namely the British Empire and the US, are English-speaking.

So English is dominant language on the planet right now. Usyk tries his best to speak it and is still 4/10. Canelo is still far more comfortable speaking spanish, but his english has improved and it’s a 6/10. But at least they try and I better the people who giggle at them can't speak a word of Ukrainian or Spanish.

Cruz is with Bozy Ennis now as one weakness Cruz has (and most Cuban fighters) is their lack of inside game. But even though I think his inside game is his worst aspect of his style. I don’t think it’s a pure detriment or a problem since Cruz has great counters and uses inside and outside escapes on the inside really well. His isn’t an easy opponent to track down.

Bozy - Don't try and turn him into a Boots 2 and make him stand his base more which is good in some instances but won't work the same as it does with Boots.

Cruz is great at hitting and moving, using amazing footwork and slickness to dominate that's what got him to the top but I hope Bozy doesn't try to "Americanize" Cruz too much and make him into something that he isn't.

[richardt]

Could be a close fight but I think Cruz will win either way.