YouTube Theater, Inglewood – In a WBA super bantamweight title clash, Erika Cruz (17-2, 3 KOs) captured gold when he punched her way to a ten round majority decision over Mayerlin Rivas (17-5-3, 11 KOs).
The scores were 95-95, 98-92 and 97-93 for Cruz.
Two fights back, Cruz lost a ten round war with undisputed featherweight champion Amanda Serrano in February. She returned in September to secure a wide decision win over Melissa Oddessa Parker in Mexico.
Rivas captured the vacant WBA title in 2020, with a decision over Laura Ledezma. Her last fight, in June, ended in a five round technical. The fight was stopped early after Romero suffered a bad cut from a head clash.
The fight began in a technical manner with cautious technical boxing match. Rivas was content on working off the back-foot and catching Cruz when she charged inside.
In the fourth, the action was heating up with Rivas more willing to stand her ground and exchange punches with Cruz. Rivas had swelling building around her right eye. The contest was getting competitive in the fifth, with close two-way action. Cruz was getting a little reckless, which led to her getting tagged when she charged in.
Cruz was having success in the sixth by throwing punches in bunches when she trapped Rivas against the ropes. After Cruz started strong in the seventh with her activity, Rivas closed with the more accurate punches. Rivas was moving around a lot in the eight, with Cruz giving chase and looking to land something big. The round ended with wild exchange between the two.
In the ninth, Cruz was charging in and making it a rough fight. There was a lot of holding by Rivas to derail the activity of Cruz. The tenth and final round saw Cruz continue to press forward with her relentless style of throwing punches. Rivas was being backed up and trying to catch Cruz with a counter, but not able to connect.