Why is Matchroom Promoter Eddie Hearn Slow-Rolling Andy Cruz?

2020 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz turns 30 today, and still doesn’t have a fight scheduled for his next contest.

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn needs to speed up the career of Andy Cruz and give him the same fast-track movement that we’re seeing for less talented fighters at 135 and in other divisions. Cruz isn’t being given the same golden path royalty treatment that we’re seeing Hearn provide for the painfully boring to watch Shakur Stevenson.

Comparing Cruz’s and Stevenson’s Paths

Andy should be getting the big fights handed to him that less entertaining fighters like Shakur Stevenson are routinely provided by Hearn. He signed Cruz to Matchroom in 2023, and he’s lagging behind what has been done for Shakur since he inked with Hearn in 2024. Why is that?

Cruz (6-0, 3 KO) last fought on June 14th, knocking out Hironori Mishiro in the fifth round in an IBF lightweight title eliminator. He had hoped to immediately challenge for a world title against the recently elevated IBF 135-lb champion Raymond Muratalla, but he’s reportedly making a voluntary defense in his next fight.

There were reports of Cruz possibly facing William Zepeda in November in Saudi Arabia. However, Cruz’s promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, hasn’t said anything about pursuing that fight.

If it were to happen, it would allow fans to compare Cruz’s performance against the volume puncher Zepeda (33-1, 27 KOs) to Shakur Stevenson, who had a massive problem defeating him on Turki Alalshikh’s July 12th card on DAZN PPV in Queens, New York.

Andy Cruz’s 30th Birthday and Future

If Cruz can do a better job of defeating Zepeda than Shakur did, it would show the fans that he’s the true King of the lightweight division, not the heavily promoted Newark, New Jersey native Stevenson, who came up short in the 2016 Olympics against Robeisy Ramirez.

Shakur earned a 12-round unanimous decision, but if the fight was scored by the three judges as if it were an amateur fight involving only headshots being counted, and body shots ignored. The numerous body shots landed by Zepeda didn’t appear to be factored into the scoring by the three. It was just the small number of headshots Shakur landed.