Over the years, the decades, there has always been at least one Mexican star in boxing, or star of boxing. In more recent years, the distinction as the face of Mexican boxing has been held by warriors like Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Ricardo Lopez and of course, in the 1980s and 1990s, Julio Cesar Chavez. Going back further, Salvador Sanchez was the man, while before him it was Ruben Olivares.<\/p>\n
Right now, Canelo Alvarez still holds the mantle as the face of Mexican boxing, yet some people, quite a few in fact, do feel Canelo\u2019s time is coming to an end; that Canelo\u2019s era is coming to it\u2019s end. We don\u2019t know how much 35 year old Canelo has left, nor do we know what else he wants to achieve before he\u2019s done. But one man who has a great, all-action style of his own and has endeared himself to the Mexican fans, indeed to global fans, and is ready to take the mantle whenever it is that Canelo retires, is Isaac \u201cPitbull\u201d Cruz.<\/p>\n
27 year old Cruz, speaking with the media ahead of his December 6 fight with Lamont Roach Jr, made it clear he has nothing but respect for his countryman, but at the same time he is ready to take over from Canelo when the time comes. \u201cPitbull\u2019s\u201d time as a big pay-per-view star could come with a commanding win over Roach.<\/p>\n
Cruz Says He\u2019s Ready to Carry the Mexican Flag<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, there\u2019s nothing to take away from Canelo, because he\u2019s done absolutely everything he\u2019s put his mind to \u2013 being undisputed, [a] pay-per-view [star], winning multiple titles,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cOver 20 years, he\u2019s built a career that could only attempt to be replicated. Having said that, Father Time comes for us all. The pounding takes its toll. Canelo may not be what he used to be. That said, retirement should be on his terms. When that time comes, I\u2019m going to be ready to take the mantle, whether that means carrying the Mexican flag with pride, being the one who sells the most pay-per-views \u2013 anything that\u2019s required as the future face of boxing for me as a Mexican.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cruz, 28-3-1(18) has thrilled fans with fights against Francisco Vargas, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Rolly Romero, Angel Fierro, and, in losing battles with Tank Davis and Jose Valenzuela. And Cruz has held the WBA super-lightweight title and last time out, in beating Omar Salcido, he won the WBC interim belt at 140 pounds. Cruz has for sure shown the kind of Mexican fighting heart and passion that makes Mexican ring warriors so special.<\/p>\n
Can \u201cPitbull\u201d Really Become Mexico\u2019s Next Superstar?<\/p>\n
But can \u201cPitbull\u201d defeat Roach, 25-1-2(10) and go on to take over from Canelo as the Mexican star of the sport? Cruz has a rock for a chin to go along with his action style and approach, and the warrior from Mexico City could have some years ahead of him in the sport even if he has a style that might not be looked at as one that is conducive to a long career.<\/p>\n
Cruz has opposition as far as other Mexican fighters who could perhaps become the next star of the sport\/country, in Gilberto \u201cZurdo\u201d Ramirez, Jaime Munguia (if Munguia\u2019s rep has not been permanently damaged due to his recent drugs test episode), Emanuel Navarrete, Rafael Espinoza, and one or two others.<\/p>\n
But maybe \u201cPitbull\u201d Cruz will indeed take the mantle, the baton, from Canelo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the years, the decades, there has always been at least one Mexican star in boxing, or star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-263872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}