Saturday night\u2019s PBC main event on DAZN isn\u2019t the biggest fight in the world, but we will see the return of Pitbull Cruz as he faces Nestor Bravo, with the potential for Cruz to land a much bigger title fight if he can get the victory.<\/p>\n
Is there any shot of the lesser-known B-side scoring the upset on Saturday? Myself and Patrick take a look at the matchup.<\/p>\n
Pitbull vs Bravo Recent Form<\/p>\n
Isaac Cruz has been able to become Pitbull Cruz, and not Isaac \u201cPitbull\u201d Cruz, same as Saul Alvarez became Canelo Alvarez, and not Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d Alvarez, and Ronald Wright was Winky and we took the quotation marks off of \u201cSugar\u201d for Sugar Rays Robinson and Leonard.<\/p>\n
Cruz (28-3-2, 18 KO) is a fun fighter. He has shark\u2019s eyes and a mean disposition in the ring, a little fireplug who is a whirlwind at his best, but can be neutralized because he\u2019s really quite small for these divisions he fights in, but built too sturdy, like, down into his bones, to fight any lighter than 135.<\/p>\n
At 140, he\u2019s been, like, pretty decent. He beat Rolly Romero in 2024, lost a big upset to Jose \u201cRayo\u201d Valenzuela less than five months later, and is 2-0-1 since then, with W\u2019s over Angel Fierro and Omar Salcido, both by decision, and then a draw with Lamont Roach that many felt Roach deserved to win, even having been knocked down.<\/p>\n
Cruz is a tough dude, doesn\u2019t shake easy, takes a good punch, seems mentally resilient, maybe once in the ring his mind goes as blank as those eyes and struggles don\u2019t bother him. It would be a good quality for a fighter. He\u2019s obviously the much bigger name in this fight, and will be expected to win. Basically, you\u2019ve all seen Cruz fight in recent years. Not as many have seen Bravo.<\/p>\n
Nestor Bravo (24-1, 17 KO) is no prospect. He\u2019s 32, a Puerto Rican, and featured on a few of those CBS Sports Network shows nobody watched that used to come from the Caribe Royale in Orlando, before MVP pretty much took over the boxing business at the venue. None of his wins were all that notable if you\u2019re talking about world level, and he took an upset loss against veteran Xolisani Ndongeni in March 2025, a split decision in Puerto Rico that one judge tried very hard to push his way, but was overruled.<\/p>\n
Last time out, Bravo stopped Pedro Campa in two rounds, back in January. That was similar to prior Bravo outings, in terms of the result and the level of opposition he faced. He\u2019ll have obvious advantages over Pitbull in height and reach, but pretty much everybody does.<\/p>\n
Pitbull vs Bravo Style Matchup<\/p>\n
Even my well-documented love of the \u201cmean little f***er\u201d archetype can\u2019t convince me that Cruz is a genuine top fighter at 140. His power doesn\u2019t seem to have followed him up and he\u2019s been struggling to pace himself down the stretch, forcing him to lean on banking as many early rounds as possible before his gas tank runs out. It\u2019s worked more often than not, of course, but with the caveat that he hasn\u2019t fought an actual super lightweight since bulldozing Rolly Romero five fights ago. If nothing else, Bravo isn\u2019t a temporarily inflated lightweight, introducing an element of intrigue.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s about the only element Bravo\u2019s got going for him, unfortunately. He\u2019s a weird mix of high-guard catch-and-pitch counter-puncher and wild slugger, two styles that neither excel on their own nor mesh particularly well. Bravo couldn\u2019t find Xolisani Ndongeni\u2019s chin on the counter despite genuinely atrocious defense on Ndongeni\u2019s part and his bum-rushes generally led to him falling over himself and stumbling into the clinch. It\u2019s blatantly obvious that he can\u2019t handle Cruz in the pocket and none of his game is conducive to keeping Cruz out of it; either he shells up and lets Cruz waltz in while chucking slow, ineffectual left hooks in response or he does Cruz\u2019s job for him by trying to lead and losing control of his momentum.<\/p>\n
Bravo does have a genuinely strong jab that could prove potent considering his half-foot reach advantage, but every other part of his style puts him smack in the middle of Cruz\u2019s storm, and he\u2019s just not good enough to survive waters that choppy.<\/p>\n
Pitbull vs Bravo Predictions<\/p>\n
Scott Christ: Again, there are obvious advantages on paper for the 32-year-old Bravo. He\u2019s much taller, much longer reach, and as noted he has a decent jab when he uses it, there are ways he can make this competitive and maybe even win. I just don\u2019t think he will, because Pitbull is just hard to beat. That sounds simple and sort of pointless, and maybe it is and maybe I\u2019ll be wrong, but you have to be willing and able to stand up to Pitbull\u2019s charges, and they\u2019re pretty relentless. I don\u2019t know if Bravo can do that. I think Cruz buys himself another title shot, either against the Smith vs Puello winner (Cruz is the WBC\u2019s interim champ, which shouldn\u2019t exist but does), or Gary Antuanne Russell in 2027. Pitbull Cruz by TKO in Round 5<\/p>\n
Patrick Stumberg: There\u2019s really nothing to this matchup outside of the national rivalry. As simple as it is on paper to defuse Cruz\u2019s onslaught, Bravo lacks the skills, physicality, and composure to do so. His counter-punching mode wasn\u2019t sharp enough to deter Ndongeni despite the South African B-side offering his chin on a silver platter and his brawler mode leaves him at the mercy of a faster, more seasoned, and more destructive puncher. He\u2019s got an outside chance of winning a decision if he can stay standing long enough for Cruz to empty his tank, but after seeing him get wobbled by Ndongeni and try to bash his way out of trouble instead of working to survive, odds are we see Cruz clip him early and put him down for good when Bravo attempts a brave last stand. Pitbull Cruz by TKO in Round 3<\/p>\n
Join us on Saturday, September 19, starting at 8 pm ET for round-by-round coverage and a live chat for Pitbull vs Bravo!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday night\u2019s PBC main event on DAZN isn\u2019t the biggest fight in the world, but we will see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,217149,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-898598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-predictions","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}