Honestly, I've seen several of his amateur matches, I have no ****ing idea where these outsized expectations are coming from. I see absolutely nothing special, especially in relation to the amount of future ATG hype he gets. It's beyond undeserved.
I'm glad he didn't sign with top rank only for the fact I don't want to hear Tessitore, Ward, Kriegel, and Bradley say whatever catch phrase they would give him 200 times a telecast. "Next up, the future all time great of greats, Andy Cruz"
Fighting somebody like Muratalla in your 7th fight is bad matchmaking, I don't care how good of an amateur he was. In hindsight, he needed a couple of solid 10/12 rounders against some solid top 15 guys. Mishiro was a C-grade punching bag, and going from him to Muratalla was an incredible leap for such an inexperienced pro. Cruz still gave a good account of himself, though. He lost, but he wasn't outclassed, and will still be a handful for anyone at 130, and given how much bigger Ray was, you'd have to think Cruz might even be able to move down to super featherweight and have a crack there.
