Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz vs. Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela rematch is in the works for the co-feature on the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell event on January 25 in Las Vegas.
Fernando Sabatino reports on X that Jose Benavidez Sr., Benavidez’s father, says the co-chief could the Cruz vs. Rayo rematch. They are working on it.
That fight will add a lot of value to the main line between WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) and WBC interim champion Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs).
The boxing world is already very interested in seeing the Benavidez-Morrell fight, but adding the Valenzuela-Cruz rematch to the card makes it even better.
‘Rayo’ Valenzuela (14-2, 9 KOs) dethroned Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs), beating him by a 12-round split decision on August 3rd in Los Angeles.
It was pure schooling by Rayo, who looked like a carbon copy of Vasily Lomachenko, using movement and power shots to dominate the hard-hitting Cruz. The 5’10” Valenzuela controlled the much shorter 5’4″ Cruz with his jab and did a good job of getting out of the way of his big power shots.
Rayo-Cruz scores
– 116-112: Lightning
– 116-112: Lightning
– 115-113: Pitbull
It is unclear what the PPV price will be for the Benavidez-Morrell event, but it will likely be in the $70+ region. Benavidez’s only two PPV events he headlined during his career were in 2023:
– Caleb Plant
– Demetrius Andrade
None of these events apparently generated huge PPV numbers, but they weren’t ideal opponents for Benavidez to fight on PPV. Morrell is a different story because he is undefeated, has great power and is seen as a future star of the sport.
Some believe that Morrell has hitting power on the level of Artur Berterbiev. The only thing missing in Morrell’s game is inside fighting and volume punching.
Born in Cuba, 26-year-old Morrell’s popularity soared during his brief five-year professional career, capturing his first world title in just his fifth fight, beating Mario Abel Cazares with a first-round knockout to claim the WBA ‘ordinary’ super middleweight belt on 27 June 2021.
