PBC’s Toe-to-Toe Tuesday on FS1 returned last night with a rematch of a fight from January between then unbeaten welterweight prospects Miguel Cruz and Alex Martin. In that fight, Martin appeared to have outboxed Cruz to earn a wide decision. Somehow two judges managed to contort reality and score the fight for Miguel Cruz. The rematch, however, did not follow the same script.
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For about the first 2:55, Chicago based Alex Martin (13-2, 5 KOs) was cleanly out landing Miguel Cruz (16-0, 11 KOs) just like he did in the first fight. One giant left hook later, everything changed. Florida’s Cruz was able to land this shot thanks to a strange change in tactics from Martin. In the first fight, Martin used his feet to create angles that the more powerful, but slower Cruz could not deal with. Here, whether he wanted to prove a point or felt like he could not fairly get a decision, Alex Martin decided to stay in front of Miguel Cruz and fight his fight instead. It was a poor choice.
Martin spent the second round recovering and then the third somewhat brawling, both rounds seemingly won by Cruz. In the fourth, Martin was fighting much better but he was again dropped. Six points down after four rounds and without significant power to fall back on, the fight was basically over for for the Chicago fighter. Martin won much of the second half of the fight, but mathematically it didn’t really matter as Cruz won a clear decision largely thanks to his work in those first four frames.
This whole two fight sequence was an illustration of the hard realities of the sport. Though he lost this fight cleanly, it is hard not to feel for Martin here. The only reason he took this fight is likely that he was robbed the first time around. Had the judges given him a fair shake the first go around, he would have been fighting someone else tonight and potentially still unbeaten. Now he has two losses on his record and has the look of a busted prospect. The fight game is a rough one.
In support of the main event, Clarence Booth (15-3, 8 KOs) stopped Puerto Rico’s Anthony Mercado (10-3, 9 KOs) in the fourth round of an entertaining, albeit low level welterweight contest. Though neither of these fighters will ever win a meaningful bout and this was a questionable fight in terms of quality for even a PBC on FS1 card, I am glad to have watched it. Both fighters fought hard and visibly hurt the other throughout the four rounds. Booth, who started southpaw, switched to a conventional stance in the third and fourth rounds. This led to landing the huge overhand rights that would eventually end the fight.
Speaking of entertaining low level fights, there was a six round swing bout between featherweights Avery Sparrow (7-1, 3 KOs) and Isaelin Florian (6-1, 3 KOs) in between the two featured fights. Philadelphia’s Sparrow won a fair decision, but the real story of this fight was first the fact that they were both down twice and then the left shoulder injury of Florian. He hurt it in the third round and for stretches, especially in the fifth, could not as much as raise it to defend himself. Nevertheless, he unleashed it once in the fourth for a huge knockdown that came out of no where given the injury. Florian, a Dominican making his US debut, gave an admirable effort given his injury in seeing the fight through to the final bell while still trying to win one handed. Before the final round and after the decision was read, the ringside doctor could be heard telling Florian’s corner that he could see the young Dominican’s shoulder popping in and out of its socket during the fight.
