Lightweight contender Andy Cruz (5-0, 2 KOs) is hoping for some big fight nights in 2025 after a one-sided 10-round unanimous decision win over Omar Salido (20-2, 14 KOs) last Saturday at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

(Credit: Melina Paizano/Matchroom)

Cruise dominates

Cruz's trainer, Derek 'Boozy' Ennis, wanted him to go all out for the knockout after hitting Salido repeatedly from the eighth round, but he couldn't do it. He still won by 99-91, 98-92 and 98-92. The judges were kind enough to give Salido no rounds because he didn't appear to win any of them. It should have been 100-90 x 3.

Cruz's promoter Eddie Horn was tight-lipped on who he might fight next. He mentioned going the IBF route, but it doesn't seem likely for Andy to get a title shot in 2025.

Ideally, Horn would match Cruz against Keeshan Davis, but he's not interested at all. Kishan showed last night, but he is likely to be seen among the amateurs as a fighter linked to rising Cuban star Andy Cruz.

“If I could give a mark for my performance I would say it was good but you can always improve,” said Andy from Cruise. Boxing is socialRating his performance in his one-sided win over Omar Salcido last Saturday night.

I put my best effort into the fight, but it was against a tough, good opponent. He was looking for the knockout early because he knew that given my power, it was an impossibility that he could beat me on points,” Cruz added.

“So, what I did was realize that I was much faster than him. He was much slower than me. So, I went out, and I took advantage of that momentum and I ended up almost taking him out of there. “

The fight was a mismatch, as Salido was not in the same league as Andy Cruz and it was evident from the start of the fight. Salido was just loading up on every shot from the get-go, looking for a knockout because he clearly knew his only path to victory was to get lucky. That's how he fought in his previous bout against Chris Colbert on October 16. He was putting maximum power into every shot, which eventually paid off with a ninth KO win for him.

“I think it's important for you to do that because you have to look for different ways,” Cruz said. “You face many different fighters and many strong opponents. So, you are faced with different situations in the ring and you have to be prepared to understand what you do in these situations.

“All I have to do is be precise, be quick, but go in and fight like that and fight like that to do what I need to do.

Keshan bitterness

“I went there, he is my son. I wanted to give him a big hug, but I was refused. I don't know if he's upset with meBut hopefully, the next time we meet, we can reconcile our differences in the future,” Cruz said of Keeshan Davis rejecting him when he tried to hug Salcido last Saturday after his win over Salcido at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Keeshan Davis is still bitter about the four losses against Cruz to amateurs and the hard time boxing fans are giving him. The way Kishan talks, it seems he sees himself as a star who doesn't need to take risks.

He has yet to fight anyone to achieve such a high view of himself, and he came into the pros after failing against Cruz in the amateurs. He wouldn't dare fight Cruz and ruin his chances of making easy money.

“All I need to do now is enjoy this victory and continue to do what I'm doing, which is moving forward and progressing with every fighter. I face a tougher fight with every fighter. What I can say is 2025 is going to be very, very interesting,” Cruz said.

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What's going to be interesting is to see if promoter Eddie Horn can line up Andy Cruz with a world title shot in 2025 because the odds of getting a shot against these three fighters are non-existent:

– Gravanta Davis
– Shakur Stevenson
– Keyshan Davis

None of these fighters have expressed interest in a fight against Andy Cruz, and that's unlikely to change in 2026. Cruise is very good. Turki al-Sheikh would need to convince one of these fighters to agree to fight him.

Cruz can always rely on sanctioning bodies to order fights, but as we've seen with them, champions can fend off dangerous mandatory challengers for years. Boxing needs to change to prevent champions from avoiding their competitors because it hurts the sport.