Roach to Lose WBA Title the Second the Bell Rings vs Pitbull Cruz

Lamont Roach is poised to be stripped of his WBA tremendous featherweight title the second he steps within the ring on Saturday in opposition to WBC interim gentle welterweight champion Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz.

Roach’s Belt Gone on Entry

WBA interim 130-lb champion James ‘Jazza’ Dickens will likely be routinely elevated the second Roach faces ‘Pitbull’ Cruz on Saturday.

Tsutsumi Lurking on Dec 27

Dickens (36-5, 15 KOs) will likely be defending the WBA tremendous featherweight crown in opposition to #3 Hayato Tsutsumi (8-0, 5 KOs) this month on December twenty seventh on the Mohammed Abdo Area, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Jazza’s time because the WBA champion might be transient, with him possible shedding it instantly in opposition to the previous Japanese novice expertise Tsutsumi.

That is Turki Alalshikh’s Ring V: Evening of the Samurai card on DAZN PPV. The worth of the occasion is $59.99 for U.S and Canadian followers and £24.99 for the UK public.

Turki’s Samurai Card Breakdown

Some followers have questioned whether or not this card charges as pay-per-view-worthy, on condition that the principle occasion between Naoya Inoue and David Picasso is seen as a mismatch, and the identical goes for the co-feature, Junto Nakatani vs. Sebastian Hernandez Reyes.

You’d should be an enormous fan of Inoue and Junto to need to pay to look at them destroy overmatched opposition in non-competitive fights. Turki dropped the ball on this one and will have simply pulled the set off on matching Inoue in opposition to Nakatani as a substitute of getting a few mismatches together with the Jazza vs. Tsutsumi struggle. These will not be aggressive fights on paper.

Roach Chasing Larger Cash

Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs) has chosen to sacrifice his WBA 130-lb belt to go within the route of larger paydays at 140 and 135, beginning together with his conflict in opposition to ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (28-3-1, 18 KOs).

Staying at 130 Was Dangerous

It’s a smart resolution for Roach, as if he had stayed at 130, he’d be defending in opposition to WBA obligatory Hayato Tsutsumi. That may have been a tricky struggle for Lamont to win, and there’s an excellent probability he’d have misplaced his belt.

Roach didn’t have a lot of a reign because the WBA 130-lb champion. After profitable the belt by an unimpressive, razor-close 12-round cut up resolution in opposition to Hector Luis Garcia on November 25, 2023, he made one voluntary protection of the title in opposition to little-known Feargal McCrory in June 2024, then moved as much as light-weight to problem WBA champion Gervonta Davis in March 2025.

Rabbit Punch Reminiscence Nonetheless Stings

If Roach’s facet, he made the fitting transfer in giving up his WBA 130-lb title, as a result of he appeared adequate in his struggle in opposition to Hector Garcia to carry onto that belt in opposition to Tsutsumi. He arguably ought to have misplaced to Hector, however acquired credit score for a textbook rabbit punch knockdown within the twelfth spherical.

If the referee had the fitting name, Roach would have misplaced the struggle as a result of Hector was profitable the twelfth spherical earlier than being dropped by a punch to the again of the top. It was painfully obvious that it was a rabbit punch, however the referee, for some purpose, couldn’t see it.