{"id":785816,"date":"2026-09-29T00:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T00:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785816\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T00:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T00:26:08","slug":"paulie-malignaggi-sees-only-one-winner-in-ryan-garcia-vs-isaac-pitbull-cruz-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785816\/","title":{"rendered":"Paulie Malignaggi sees only one winner in Ryan Garcia vs Isaac \u2018Pitbull\u2019 Cruz title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former world champion <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/paulie-malignaggi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paulie Malignaggi<\/a> suspects the proposed clash between <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/ryan-garcia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Garcia<\/a> and Isaac \u2018Pitbull\u2019 Cruz is a complete \u201cmismatch\u201d, believing that one man boasts clear advantages over the other.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia did, of course, make a successful defence of his WBC title earlier this month, having become a world welterweight champion by dethroning Mario Barrios in February.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, the American was coming off a <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/rolando-romero-drops-and-shocks-ryan-garcia-in-new-york\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">shock defeat to Rolando Romero<\/a>, who he fought in May 2025 after serving a year-long doping ban.<\/p>\n<p>Now coming off a second-round finish over <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/conor-benn\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Conor Benn<\/a>, though, Garcia has shown signs of improvement and, in particular, is utilising his right hand as a formidable weapon.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of possible opponents, the 28-year-old has called for a unification match with <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/teofimo-lopez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Teofimo Lopez<\/a> who, likewise, seems keen to collide on Cinco de Mayo weekend in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, however, Garcia appears eager to remain active and has therefore expressed his interest in facing Cruz later this year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/nestor-bravo-sums-up-isaac-cruz-power\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coming off a sixth-round knockout of Nestor Bravo earlier this month<\/a>, the Mexican verbally accepted Garcia\u2019s offer but, standing at around 5ft 4in, would be at a terrific size disadvantage if they end up locking horns.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but Malignaggi has said on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@b.t.r.boxing\/video\/7689069483322854669?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ProBox TV<\/a> that, stylistically, he does not expect the type of firefight that others would be anticipating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat fight\u2019s completely one-sided; it\u2019s a mismatch. No shade on Pitbull \u2013 he\u2019s a good fighter \u2013 but I just think the styles] of Garcia and Cruz wouldn\u2019t] blend together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Having competed at 140lbs for his last six fights, Cruz perhaps feels as though he deserves the opportunity to become a two-division world champion.<\/p>\n<p>                                            <script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former world champion Paulie Malignaggi suspects the proposed clash between Ryan Garcia and Isaac \u2018Pitbull\u2019 Cruz is a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785816","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\/785816","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=785816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}