ProBox CEO Garry Jonas congratulates former WBA junior lightweight champion Lamont Roach Jr., for his courageous performance Saturday night, December 6th. Fighting in the PBC pay-per-view main event against WBC interim junior welterweight Champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz in front of 10,230 Cruz fans at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, Roach (25-1-3, 10 KOs) overcame a third-round knockdown and an injured right hand to battle to a twelve-round majority draw. A questionable score of 115-111 for Cruz was over-ruled by two scores of 113-113. Jonas co-promotes Roach Jr. along with Lamont Roach Sr.’s NoXcuse Promotions. According to Jonas, most observers had Roach winning a close fight.
Fighting in his first fight at 140 pounds, the former 130-pound titleholder enjoyed an advantage on the CompuBox statistics against Cruz, landing 191 of 467 punches (41 percent) against Cruz’s 159 of 544 punches (29 percent). Roach landed 49 percent of his power shots and was credited with landing more punches in eight of twelve rounds. The pair were even in two, leaving Cruz the advantage in just two rounds.
“We got the x-ray done and it’s confirmed his hand is broken,” continued Jonas, “so first, Lamont will have to let that heal properly, which means no short turn around for him. We still have a rematch clause with Tank (Gervonta Davis), but there’s a lot of uncertainty there. We want the fight if he’s willing and able. We’re also happy to look at a rematch with Pitbull in DC. Lamont has gone into two hostile environments in a row and got two draws. He deserves to fight in front of his fans next time. We are going to do whatever it takes to make that happen when he comes back from injury.”
As for Saturday's performance, Jonas said, “We are very proud of Lamont. It was a tremendous fight and, of course, we felt he won,” said Jonas. “A draw in Texas in front of a huge pro-Mexican crowd validates how well Lamont fought. What’s even more impressive is that Lamont fought the last half of the fight with one hand. He broke his right hand halfway through and showed tremendous heart.”
