Andy Cruz vs Hironori Mishiro Preview June 14th, 2025
2021 Olympic lightweight gold medalist Andy Cruz of Cuba fights for the sixth time as a pro when he takes on Hironori Mishiro of Japan this Saturday, June 14th. The 12-round tilt from New York City is being billed as an IBF Lightweight Elimination bout and can be seen live in most nations on DAZN. Cruz last fought in January when he beat Omar Salcido Gamez via a 10-round unanimous decision to defend his IBF International Lightweight Title. Mishiro’s last outing resulted in a stoppage after six rounds over Hinata Maruta to defend his Japanese Lightweight Belt.
Cruz vs Mishiro Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Hironori Mishiro +500
- Andy Cruz -900
My Pick
The 29-year-old Cruz reportedly went 140-9 as an amateur star with 10 Ko’s. He captured gold medals at the 2017 Pan American Championships; the 2015 and 2019 Pan American Games; the 2017, 2019 and 2021 World Championships and the Olympics. He’s been training under the tutelage of Derek Ennis and is based in Miami, Florida after inking a three-year deal with Matchroom Boxing. Cruz measures 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 68.5-inch reach. He possesses excellent speed, timing, ring IQ and jab but isn’t known to be the most powerful puncher out there as his knockout ratio sits at 40 per cent.
Cruz steps into the ring with a perfect mark of 5-0 with 2 Ko’s and has boxed 40 pro rounds as he beat veteran Juan Carlos Burgos by a 10-round unanimous decision in his pro debut in July, 2023 and captured the vacant IBF International Lightweight Title. He then stopped Jovanni Straffon in his first defence five months later and shutout Brayan Rodriguez over 10 rounds in February, 2024 before stopping Antonio Moran in the seventh round last August and then beating Gamez in his last fight. Cruz kicked off his pro career by working with Ennis and his son Jaron, the current interim IBF Welterweight Champion.
Cruz beat Keyshawn Davis several times as an amateur, usually in gold-medal matches, and also beat Elvis Rodriguez several times. He also competed in the World Series of Boxing a few years ago. He’s now hoping to turn his amateur success into a pro world title but after taking on Burgos in his debut he has arguably taken backward steps in quality of opposition since then but at least Moran and Gamez had taken on a few recognizable opponents during their careers.
Mishiro is 30 years old and climbs through the ring ropes with a mark of 17-1-1 with 6 Ko’s and will be fighting outside of Japan for the fourth time. He turned pro back in 2017 and has 146 rounds of experience under his belt since. He measures just over 5-feet-9-inches tall with an unlisted reach so is a half-inch taller than Cruz. When it comes to power, Mishiro is also below average just 35.3 per cent of his wins have come by way of stoppage. He’s stopped his past two opponents however but went the distance in his five previous contests.
The lone defeat in Mishiro’s career came at the hands of Min Ho Jung in Korea in 2023 when he dropped a five-round technical unanimous decision. His lone draw was a 12-round affair in in 2018 with Masaru Sueyoshi for the Japanese and Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation Super Featherweight Titles. Mishiro won the OPBF Super Featherweight Belt in 2018 with a 12-round split decision over Carlo Magali and defended it four times. He then captured the Japanese Lightweight Belt in April of last year and has defended it by stoppage in his past two fights.
Prediction…
Mishiro is durable with a pretty good chin but hasn’t faced any top-10 talent as of yet. Cruz is in a different class though as he’s an elite boxer though with plenty of skill, speed and combination punching and also has decent power. Mishiro should be able to hang in there for a few rounds at least and the fight could even go the distance. However he’s not on the same level as Cruz and he lacks the power to keep him at bay. If Cruz does manage to stop Mishiro it’ll likely be due to an accumulation of punches rather than a one-shot KO.
Cruz is a class above Mishiro.
Play Cruz -900 @ BetOnline.ag
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Andy Cruz betting • Hironori Mishiro betting