Muratalla Keeps IBF Title After Controversial Decision Over Cruz | Boxing Results

Personally, I had Cruz edging it, and for the life of me, I can’t find a path that gives Muratalla ten rounds. You can’t ignore a fighter getting repeatedly snapped back by a jab, reset, and forced to rebuild his offense from scratch over and over again.

Muratalla did what he always does. He pressed forward, stayed active, and committed to the body. Cruz boxed with control, managed distance, and landed the cleaner punches while limiting exchanges. Neither fighter dominated extended stretches, which is why most of the rounds felt narrow rather than decisive.

Cruz was not avoiding engagement. He was choosing it. He landed first often, stepped out cleanly, and made Muratalla pay for coming forward without his feet set. Muratalla answered with pressure and volume, particularly late, but pressure alone did not outweigh clean work in rounds where he was consistently beaten to the punch.

That is where the scoring should have lived, in close calls shaped by preference rather than separation. Judges were weighing accuracy against activity, not control against survival. A draw fits that fight. A close decision in either direction fits that fight. A card implying clear control by one fighter does not.

The 118 110 score was not simply a different opinion. It was disconnected from the rhythm of the contest. In a bout decided by small exchanges and timing, that margin turned a competitive fight into something it never was on paper.

This does not need to be labeled a robbery to be troubling. Muratalla winning is defensible. The fight itself was legitimate. The issue was scale. One judge stretched the result beyond what the action supported and made the outcome harder to accept than it needed to be.

Muratalla keeps his title and moves on, though the performance answered few questions. Cruz takes his first professional loss, but it does little damage. In only his sixth fight, he showed he can operate at this level without protection.

The decision will remain in the books. The 118 110 will remain with it. That number is the problem, because it describes a fight that did not take place.