The stop-and-start saga of Raymond Muratalla’s mandatory IBF lightweight title defense against Andy Cruz may finally be reaching a conclusion, as Matchroom Boxing successfully defeated Top Rank at today’s purse bid.
Per Jake Donovan, Matchroom’s $888,888 bid soundly trounced Top Rank’s $550,000 , a rare victory for Eddie Hearn in this arena. This still leaves them nearly $1 million to work with after Fresh Promotions topped Matchroom’s $1,710,000 offer to stage Subriel Matias vs Dalton Smith last
month.
Cruz (6-0, 3 KO), a two-time Olympic gold medalist and one of the finest amateurs of this generation, ran over Hironori Mishino in a final eliminator this past June shortly after Vasiliy Lomachenko’s retirement upgraded Muratalla’s (23-0, 17 KO) interim belt to the real deal. The pair initially negotiated a November showdown, presumably on one of Riyadh Season’s mega-shows, but failed to seal the deal. This led Muratalla to turn his attention to a voluntary defense against Floyd Schofield, which also fizzled on the launchpad.
Though Muratalla had a 12-month window for voluntary defenses, his inability to secure one prompted the IBF to push up the deadline and ultimately order this purse bid. He still has to sign on and could theoretically ditch the belt rater than fight Cruz, but with Top Rank in a holding pattern while it hunts for a broadcast partner, he’s desperately short on other options.
