2020 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz turns 30 today, and still does not have a fight for his next competition.
The match promoter Eddie Hearn must speed up the career of Andy Cruz and give him the same fast track movement as we see for less talented fighters at 135 and in other divisions. Cruz is not given the same Golden Pad Royalty Treatment That we see Hearn taking care of the painfully boring to look at Shakur Stevenson.
Compare Cruz’s and Stevenson’s roads
Andy must hand him the big fights that less entertaining fighters such as Shakur Stevenson are regularly provided by Hearn. He signed Cruz to the match room in 2023, and he stays behind what Shakur has done since he spent Hearn Ink in 2024. Why is it?
Cruz (6-0, 3 KO) last fought and knocked out on June 14 Hironori Mishiro in the fifth round in an IBF lightweight title Eliminator. He hoped to challenge immediately for a world title against the recently increased IBF champion, Raymond Muratalla, of 135 pounds, but he reportedly made a voluntary defense in his next battle.
There were reports about Cruz who may have faced William Zepeda in Saudi Arabia in November. However, Cruz promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom did not say anything about the fight.
If that were to happen, it would enable fans to compare Cruz’s performance with the volume Puncher Zepeda (33-1, 27 CO’s) with Shakur Stevenson, who had a massive problem to defeat him on the 12th map of Turki Alalshikh Dazn ppv In Queens, New York.
Andy Cruz’s 30th birthday and future
Congratulations on your birthday to the diamond, @Andydiamondcruz 💎 pic.twitter.com/l6e2pyaeax
– Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) August 12, 2025
If Cruz could do a better job of defeating Zepeda than Shakur did, it would show the fans that he was the true king of the lightweight division, not the strongly promoted Newark, New Jersey native Stevenson, who came up against Robisky Ramirez in the 2016 Olympics.
Shakur earned a unanimous 12 -round decision, but if the fight was recorded by the three judges, as if it were an amateur fight that only counted head shots and ignored body shots. The numerous body shots landed by Zepeda do not appear to be by the three in the standings. It was just the small number of head shots that Shakur landed.
Last updated on 08/12/2025
