if Julio César La Cruz turns pro? Your expectations?

KillerIsBack V2

Silver Belt
@Silver
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
10,527
Reaction score
5,044
I don't see it happening though.
Does anybody know what his ammy record is?
I've seen all the shitload of medals he piled up as an amateur.

 
Last edited:
I have to admit I haven't been following amateurs over the past few years. US amateur boxing doesn't warrant much attention right now.
 
we'll see how his style translates but he's clearly a top talent, I personally have little doubt that he would be elite if his career is guided correctly. He'd be at LHW though (probably, since that's where he fought in the ammies) and that's a stacked division. He'd need a few fights before he's ready for a kov or stevenson or beterbiev or gvozyk
 
Yeah watched some of his fights and I like him. He has good defense but if he turns pro he needs to be a little less Prince Naseem "ish" with his defense or eventually when he jumps up in competition he'll get Marco Barrera'd. He needs to stay disciplined.
 
Yeah watched some of his fights and I like him. He has good defense but if he turns pro he needs to be a little less Prince Naseem "ish" with his defense or eventually when he jumps up in competition he'll get Marco Barrera'd. He needs to stay disciplined.
worked for Roy Jones. But if he wants to stick around longer he should B-hop his training and life style.
Fuck Barrera’s GnP!
 
Hope he knows how to defend body shots. Talented nonetheless.
 
IF he turns pro then he'd better do it quick. He's already 28 (if his age documentation is accurate) and has been on the amateur circuit competing against the best in the world and dominating his division for the last half decade. He just won the Worlds again in September for the fourth consecutive time and last year notably became the first Light Heavyweight Olympic Champion in Cuban boxing history. Though he did come up short at the 2012 Olympics when he entered as the reigning World Champion against Yamaguchi Falcao. He'd beaten him handily the year prior at the Pan Ams which made the upset even more surprising. Still, his extremely impressive medal haul can't be ignored.

My expectations of him would be that he'd likely win a world title not too long after turning pro if he turns pro soon. The knock is that he relies very heavily on his elite athleticism, his excellent reflexes in particular, and that doesn't age well. For the last couple years he's been the universally recognized P4P #1 amateur boxer in the world. He's AIBA's World Rankings leading points scorer across all divisions. His current tally is 3,000 pts, which is accumulated over a two year rolling period, 400 pts ahead of the rest of the pack regardless of division. The closest boxers to him in points accumulated as of September are Hasanboy Dusmatov (2,600 pts), Shakhram Giyasov (2,600 pts) & Evgeny Tishchenko (2,600 pts), the latter of which got a nice gift last year at the Rio Olympics against Vasily Levit. Dusmatov won the Val Barker Trophy in Rio but La Cruz could've just as easily won it for his impressive run (didn't lose a single round).

Record & Losses

According to Boxing Scoop's database his amateur record is 151-12 (take it with some salt). However, I was able to verify all 12 of his AOB (AIBA Open Boxing) international amateur losses through his AIBA profile along with 2 additional semi-pro losses not accounted for from his World Series of Boxing profile where he's currently 23-3 as the Cuba Domadores' national team captain. WSB is considered semi-pro but in Europe it's still viewed as the amateur ranks. BoxRec & Fight Fax (as of last year) don't count any WSB or APB bouts as professional bouts, so, he'd start out with a clean record as a pro. Hopefully he would decide to go the standard professional boxing route and not through AIBA's APB banner. He's never been stopped that we know of but he has been dropped before in competition, at least once. He was dropped at the 2014 Cuban National Championships while trying to dodge a punch in his usual fashion and was caught on the chin. He's definitely not "untouchable", no one is, but he is one hell of an athlete and a great unorthodox Cuban stylist. He started boxing when he was only 6 years old.

Russian Nikita Ivanov (2013 European Champion & 2011 European Runner-Up/Silver Medalist) beat him twice & it doesn't appear that La Cruz was ever able to get back a win during their meetings, suggesting that Ivanov may have his number. He defeated him in 2011 & again in 2014 in the WSB. Venezuelan Albert Ramirez beat him twice where La Cruz was able to beat him once. Ramirez was the last man to beat him in the amateur ranks in the final of the 2015 American Confederation Boxing Championships. Ramirez also most recently beat him in March of this year in the WSB. Eleider Alvarez was also able to beat him twice during La Cruz's first year as a senior level boxer in 2008, defeating him the last two times they met. La Cruz was able to beat him once in their first meeting the same year. Coincidentally, he lost in 2008 to Vyacheslav Shabranskyy who beat him on points 12-4. Shabranskyy is fighting Kovalev tonight for the vacant Light Heavyweight WBO world title.
 
This Cuban JCC is a great boxer. He was in my country last month and fought the national champ

Tickets were unfortunately sold out quite fast. It was mainly vip tables over there, almost no regular seats which i think is stupid. It makes the sport less acessible
 
IF he turns pro then he'd better do it quick. He's already 28 (if his age documentation is accurate) and has been on the amateur circuit competing against the best in the world and dominating his division for the last half decade. He just won the Worlds again in September for the fourth consecutive time and last year notably became the first Light Heavyweight Olympic Champion in Cuban boxing history. Though he did come up short at the 2012 Olympics when he entered as the reigning World Champion against Yamaguchi Falcao. He'd beaten him handily the year prior at the Pan Ams which made the upset even more surprising. Still, his extremely impressive medal haul can't be ignored.

My expectations of him would be that he'd likely win a world title not too long after turning pro if he turns pro soon. The knock is that he relies very heavily on his elite athleticism, his excellent reflexes in particular, and that doesn't age well. For the last couple years he's been the universally recognized P4P #1 amateur boxer in the world. He's AIBA's World Rankings leading points scorer across all divisions. His current tally is 3,000 pts, which is accumulated over a two year rolling period, 400 pts ahead of the rest of the pack regardless of division. The closest boxers to him in points accumulated as of September are Hasanboy Dusmatov (2,600 pts), Shakhram Giyasov (2,600 pts) & Evgeny Tishchenko (2,600 pts), the latter of which got a nice gift last year at the Rio Olympics against Vasily Levit. Dusmatov won the Val Barker Trophy in Rio but La Cruz could've just as easily won it for his impressive run (didn't lose a single round).

Record & Losses

According to Boxing Scoop's database his amateur record is 151-12 (take it with some salt). However, I was able to verify all 12 of his AOB (AIBA Open Boxing) international amateur losses through his AIBA profile along with 2 additional semi-pro losses not accounted for from his World Series of Boxing profile where he's currently 23-3 as the Cuba Domadores' national team captain. WSB is considered semi-pro but in Europe it's still viewed as the amateur ranks. BoxRec & Fight Fax (as of last year) don't count any WSB or APB bouts as professional bouts, so, he'd start out with a clean record as a pro. Hopefully he would decide to go the standard professional boxing route and not through AIBA's APB banner. He's never been stopped that we know of but he has been dropped before in competition, at least once. He was dropped at the 2014 Cuban National Championships while trying to dodge a punch in his usual fashion and was caught on the chin. He's definitely not "untouchable", no one is, but he is one hell of an athlete and a great unorthodox Cuban stylist. He started boxing when he was only 6 years old.

Russian Nikita Ivanov (2013 European Champion & 2011 European Runner-Up/Silver Medalist) beat him twice & it doesn't appear that La Cruz was ever able to get back a win during their meetings, suggesting that Ivanov may have his number. He defeated him in 2011 & again in 2014 in the WSB. Venezuelan Albert Ramirez beat him twice where La Cruz was able to beat him once. Ramirez was the last man to beat him in the amateur ranks in the final of the 2015 American Confederation Boxing Championships. Ramirez also most recently beat him in March of this year in the WSB. Eleider Alvarez was also able to beat him twice during La Cruz's first year as a senior level boxer in 2008, defeating him the last two times they met. La Cruz was able to beat him once in their first meeting the same year. Coincidentally, he lost in 2008 to Vyacheslav Shabranskyy who beat him on points 12-4. Shabranskyy is fighting Kovalev tonight for the vacant Light Heavyweight WBO world title.
Hmm true, but Bith Cruz and Ramirez competed in the last olympics in the same weight class. Cruz won gold, while Ramirez didnt win any medal.
Sometimes a guy just has ur number either for a style of a gameplan.
 
I think the pro ranks eat him alive, like many other Olympians. All reaction time and reflexes.

Now his Cuban teammate Robiesy Ramirez fights in a way such an arrogant way, too, hands down and whatnot, but that guy seems to be gameplanning and setting traps, not just being at a huge athletic advantage and moving much faster and reacting better.
 
If someone is that good why wouldn't they turn pro? What would be the point of putting in that many years of hard work and then not going after the big money?
 
If someone is that good why wouldn't they turn pro? What would be the point of putting in that many years of hard work and then not going after the big money?

He's Cuban.

Anyway, his physical talent is such that he'd more or less certainly get in the conversation of being at the top of the LHW division. Still, it's not like Ward, Beterbiev, Kovalev (even if he lacked the international achievements, it has at least been suggested that there wasn't much to choose between him and Beterbiev), and Bivol, assuming he's the goods, (granted, Bivol's amateur achievements are more difficult to place as they're not on the elite international level like Ward or Beterbiev's are) weren't damn good amateurs in their own right. There could be some question about la Cruz's style wholly translating to the pros (for example, he might struggle on the inside, although, there aren't a ton of fighters out there to exploit that kind of weakness these days), and his impressive reflexes and athleticism do appear to play a sizable role in his success. I think it's pretty clear that he's not the hitter that Kovalev, Beterbiev, or perhaps even Bivol are.

One thing on his side might be that he is a Cuban amateur of a significantly higher quality than Barrera, and Barrera hasn't done too poorly for himself in the LHW division.
 
Hmm true, but Bith Cruz and Ramirez competed in the last olympics in the same weight class. Cruz won gold, while Ramirez didnt win any medal.
Sometimes a guy just has ur number either for a style of a gameplan.

Yeah but they didn't compete against each other in Rio last year. Ramirez was eliminated in the prelims and didn't advance to the quarter-finals, the Algerian guy that beat him did. I was talking about Ivanov though. I see that they've competed against each other twice, once in standard intl amateur boxing (AOB) and once in the WSB and both times Ivanov beat him. Ivanov is no world beater but at the European continental level he was a champion & a silver medalist so he's not a bum. He's been able to solve him both times they met is all I'm saying. La Cruz has been figured out before and twice by a few guys with different styles.
 
I believe this was his most recent knockdown. Joshua Buatsi dropped him clean with a quick left hook in the first preliminary round of the 2015 World Championships. La Cruz was handily winning the round prior and turned it up extra after the knockdown to take the round 10-9 on all three judges cards. This is bound to happen when your defense is so heavily based on your reflexes. He caught him before he could pull back to dodge it. Since he insists on having his hands down and not using a guard then he should incorporate the layback. It's a much safer alternative to make opponents miss with "near hits" and he'll be in a better position to counter while staying on balance.

[Timestamped]
 
I don't see it happening though.
Does anybody know what his ammy record is?
I've seen all the shitload of medals he piled up as an amateur.


DAMN this guy is UNREAL,, why isnt @cuban23 not promoting this guy as the next coming of Jesus
 
So what happened to his teammate Robiesy Ramirez who left the Cuban national team in Mexico in July ?has he turned pro yet.
 
So what happened to his teammate Robiesy Ramirez who left the Cuban national team in Mexico in July ?has he turned pro yet.
He is/was expected to defect. Originally his plan was to try and go for a third gold medal at the Olympics. The info I'm going off is from July when ESPN published an article stating he'd left the Cuban national team in Mexico, the same article you must've read.
 
La Cruz, Ramirez, and Savon would all be very interesting in the pro ranks. It’s unfortunate that this thread is a year old and still there is no progress...
 
La Cruz, Ramirez, and Savon would all be very interesting in the pro ranks. It’s unfortunate that this thread is a year old and still there is no progress...
I know and what I wonder is Cuba the only country in the world that doesn't allow Pro Boxing ?
 
Back
Top