‘Pitbull Cruz is a stationary target—I’ll make it

Lamont Roach states that he sees Isaac ‘”Pitbull” Cruz as a “stationary target,” and he sees that a “W” for him for their December 6 fight on Amazon Prime Video pay-per-view.

Target practice in San Antonio

Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs) doesn’t see himself having trouble landing his shots against WBC interim light welterweight champion Cruz (28-3-1, 18 KOs) in their 12-round headliner at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Lamont says it’s not a problem for him to move up from 135 to 140 after just one fight at lightweight against Gervonta Davis on March 1, 2025. What helps him is that he has fought outside of his natural weight class by competing at 130 his entire career. He should have been at 140 all along.

Roach mentions that he is fighting a small light welterweight, Cruz, who is short at 5’4″. At 5’7″, Lamont will have the size advantage over ‘Pitbull’ just like he did in his last fight against Tank Davis.

Roach looked gigantic inside the ring compared to Gervonta, which was one of the reasons he was able to give him such a hard time in their 12-round majority draw.

No surprises from Cruz’s style

“I’m going to prove that I’m one of the best fighters in the world again,” Lamont Roach continued Fight Hub TV about his fight against Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz on December 6th. “I’ve fought quite a few fighters from Mexico with the same style. Nothing he’ll bring surprises me.”

For Roach to prove he is one of the “best” fighters, it’s going to be more than beating ‘Pitbull’ Cruz. He’ll have to step it up against these fighters at 140:

• Gary Antoine Russell
• Ernesto Mercado
• Keyshawn Davis
• Teofimo Lopez
• Richardon Hitchins

Matias, Toe Shakur—The Roadmap

Roach made no mention of wanting to stay at 140 to fight any of those guys should he defeat Cruz. He wants to fight WBC 140-lb champion Subriel Matias for his belt, and move back to challenge Shakur Stevenson for his WBC lightweight title.

Many boxing fans on social media consider Matias to be the weakest link among the champions at 140. So it makes sense that Roach would target him rather than Hitchins, Teofimo or Russell.

“Moving up to 140 isn’t a big jump for me, and obviously ‘Pitbull’ isn’t the biggest 140. It’s just me taking the opportunity to get me where I want to be in my career. I want to be in the Hall of Fame,” Roach said.

Tom Galm has covered the global boxing scene since 2014, specializing in heavyweight analysis, business trends and fighter psychology.