Cristóbal Cruz

Cristóbal Cruz
Statistics
Real name	Cristóbal Cruz Rivera
Nickname(s)	Lacandón
Rated at	Featherweight
Height	5 ft. 7 in. (170 cm.)
Nationality	Mexican
Born	May 19, 1977 (1977-05-19) (age 34) Chiapas, Mexico
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	50
Wins	37
Wins by KO	23
Losses	11
Draws	1

Cristóbal Cruz Rivera, also known as Lacandón (born May 19, 1977 in Chiapas, Mexico) is a Mexican professional boxer and former IBF Featherweight Champion.

Career

On January 17, 1992, Cruz began his professional career, beating fellow Mexican debutant Manuel Morales with a second round knockout on the undercard of a bill headed by Tomas Valdez in Monterrey, Mexico.^[1]

After racking up 24 fights with 21 wins and 11 knockouts in just over tens years, Cruz faced Francisco Dianzo for the WBC Continental Americas featherweight title. Cruz overcame Dianzo in the eleventh round about would beat him again in 2005 with a 6th round knockout.^[1]

Road to the IBF title

Between October 2005 and May 2007 Cruz's career looked to be coming to an end when he had seven fights with four losses and a no contest including two losses to Francisco Lorenzo.

In August 2007, Cruz started back on the comeback trail when he defeated Alberto Garza with a tenth round knockout to capture the WBC FECOMBOX featherweight title. This victory lead to a shot at the IBO featherweight title against South African champion Thomas Mashaba who had only one loss in a ten year 25 fight career. The clash took place in March 2008 at the Foxwoods Casino, Connecticut. The pair fought twelve tough rounds with Cruz having blood running from his nose from the eighth round onwards. In a major upset Cruz finished strongly breaking CompuBox record for punches thrown in a 12-round fight to take the victory by majority decision with one judge calling the fight even and two giving it to Cruz by one solitary round.^[1][2]

In October 2008, Cruz would vacate his new found IBO title and aim for a bigger prize - the IBF featherweight title - which had been recently vacated by Robert Guerrero who moved up to super featherweight. He faced fellow Mexican Orlando Salido who had won an eliminator less than a year previous and had fought for the title previously, losing to Juan Manuel Márquez in 2004, his only loss since 2001 and a no contest again Guerrero in 2006. Once again Cruz overcame the odds to defeat the bookies favourite to take one of the most prestigious titles in boxing by beating a battered and swollen Salido on points.^[2]

He followed this up with a defeat of once-beaten Jorge Solís, avenging a loss earlier in his career.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Boxrec. "Cristóbal Cruz". Boxrec Fighter Page. http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=60992&cat=boxer. Retrieved 26 January 2009. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Graham Houston. "ORLANDO SALIDO vs CRISTOBAL CRUZ". Fight Writer. http://www.fightwriter.com/?q=node/1910. Retrieved 26 January 2009. 

External links

• Biography and Pictures
• Professional boxing record for Cristóbal Cruz from BoxRec

Vacant Title last held by Robert Guerrero

IBF Featherweight Champion October 23, 2008 – May 15, 2010

Succeeded by Orlando Salido

Persondata
Name	Cruz, Stephen
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 19, 1977
Place of birth	Chiapas, Mexico
Date of death
Place of death