Lamont Roach Jr. and Isaac Cruz battled to a majority draw Saturday night at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
Cruz retained his WBC interim junior welterweight title while Roach left with a second consecutive majority draw this year.
One judge scored the fight 115-111 in favor of Cruz while two judges scored it 113-113.
The fight was even early, with Cruz scoring a third-round knockdown to inch ahead. However, Roach made a strategic adjustment to seemingly take control of the second half of the fight. But it wasn’t enough to prevent him from going winless in his last two fights.
Roach vented his frustration afterward.
Fighting out of Washington, D.C., Roach (25-1-3, 10 KOs) was coming off a controversial majority draw against Gervonta “Tank” Davis in March. Unable to land a rematch, Roach had to look elsewhere and opted to move up to 140 pounds to face Cruz (28-3-2, 18 KOs). He entered the fight as the WBA super featherweight titleholder but was stripped of the title once the bell sounded for his fight with Cruz.
Cruz, who went the distance with Davis in a spirited decision loss in 2021, had won six out of his seven previous fights, claiming the vacant WBC interim junior welterweight title in his last fight by beating Omar Salcido.
Cruz charged at Roach from the opening bell, firing looping punches. The constant aggression was effective early, although Roach found spots to counter with his left hand. Roach effectively picked his spots while Cruz plowed ahead with reckless abandon. During an exchange in Round 3, a left hand from Cruz knocked Roach off balance, knocking him down for the first time in his career when his glove touched the canvas. Roach wasn’t hurt, but the damage was done and caused him to alter his approach.
The knockdown caused Roach to fight in the pocket from that point, which led to some furious exchanges on the inside. Cruz worked well to the body while Roach slipped in counters that caught “Pitbull” on the chin. Roach slammed a left hook into Cruz’s face in Round 6, his best punch of the fight to that point. However, he opted to fight on Cruz’s terms rather than try to lean toward his strengths by boxing on the outside and picking off his opponent’s advances.
Roach made a minor adjustment in the middle rounds, using a catch and shoot strategy to bait Cruz in. The shift was effective as he would catch Cruz both coming in and exiting. Cruz was also deducted a point for excessive clinching in Round 7, which brought the fight back to neutral ground and offset the earlier knockdown. Roach had Cruz flustered with the change in strategy and began to take control of the fight, nullifying the offensive output of “Pitbull” and taking the crowd completely out of the fight. However, Cruz sprang to life in the championship rounds, taking the fight to Roach.
It was a close fight that ended in an unsatisfying draw, even though Roach outlanded Cruz 191-159. Both fighters appeared to be interested in a rematch after the stalemate.
In the co-main event, O’Shaquie Foster dominated Stephen Fulton and cruised to a unanimous decision to become the WBC interim lightweight champion.
The fight was originally set to be contested for Foster’s WBC junior lightweight title, but Fulton came in two pounds overweight. The WBC inexplicably changed the stakes of the fight to an interim title fight at 135 pounds with the winner being the mandatory challenger for the winner of next month’s fight between WBO champion Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson.
Foster (24-3, 12 KOs) was absolutely brilliant in outclassing the former two-division champion throughout the 12-round affair. Foster tamed Fulton (23-2, 8 KOs) behind a sharp jab and kept him on the outside for long stretches of the fight. The champion expertly held court in the center of the ring while Fulton struggled to get inside or land anything of substance. As the rounds wore on, Fulton’s frustration visibly showed in his approach as Foster began to put combinations behind the jab whenever his opponent attempted to push his way inside.
The judges scored the fight 117-111, 118-110 and 119-109, but it could have very well been scored a shutout because of Foster’s dominance.
