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Maurice Hooker outpoints Cristobal Cruz over 10

Hooker (left) lands a jab on Cruz. Photo: Stacey Verbeek
Fighters Network
26
Feb

Junior welterweight contender Maurice Hooker returned to action on Friday and claimed a 10-round unanimous decision over former featherweight titleholder Cristobal Cruz. The scores were 100-90 and 99-91 twice for Hooker, who lives and trains in the Dallas area.

The bout took place at the Salon Mezzanine in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

Hooker had a significant six-inch height advantage, which allowed him to rain down punches on Cruz who spent much of the fight attempting to get inside Hooker’s reach.

In his most recent outing, Hooker fought to a 10-round split-decision draw against former WBA lightweight titleholder Darleys Perez. Many thought that Perez had done enough to win that fight.



Hooker had actually been scheduled to appear on Saturday against Juan Pablo Lopez on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto-James Kirkland bout. Unfortunately, that entire card was cancelled three weeks ago when Kirkland suffered a fractured nose in training.

Hooker is ranked No. 4 by the IBF and No. 3 by the WBO at 140 pounds. He improves to 22-0-3 (16 knockouts). Cruz falls to 41-21-4 (25 KOs).

The 39-year-old Cruz, who resides in Tijuana, has now lost seven of his last nine bouts.

 

 

 

 

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing

 

 

 

 

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