Eddie Hearn, Matchroom Boxing’s managing director, admitted Andy Cruz could’ve done more to take the IBF lightweight title from Raymond Muratalla on Saturday night.

Cruz’s promoter thinks the 135-pound championship bout was very competitive. He also acknowledged that Muratalla deserved the victory, though he took issue with judge Tim Cheatham scoring it 118-110 for the champion, giving him 10 rounds.

Steve Weisfeld felt Muratalla won eight rounds (116-112). Max De Luca scored it a draw, 114-114, which rendered a more aggressive Muratalla the winner by majority decision.

“If we got the decision, I don’t think it would’ve been a bad decision,” Hearn told a group of reporters at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. “But hand on heart, I thought we lost the last round to probably lose the fight. Seven-five is how I scored it [115-113]. Eight-four [116-112], I think, maybe. I thought 118-110 is a disgrace. I don’t see how you can [do that].”

Hearn disagreed when one videographer contended that Muratalla might’ve earned that type of wide win on the cards.

“If you know boxing, you can’t possibly score it [that way],” Hearn said. “If you watched the fight, you can’t just have a guy coming forward, throwing shots, landing on the gloves and around the back, and just score it all the time. But sometimes in a close round, it was the output of Raymond Muratalla that, in my opinion, won him the fight. I thought [Cruz] won five rounds, but it wasn’t enough. But probably needed to do a bit more in terms of output.”

Hearn noticed from his front-row seat that the durable, strong Muratalla’s size and professional experience factored into the outcome.

Muratalla (24-0, 17 KOs), of Fontana, California, has almost four times as many pro bouts as Cruz (6-1, 3 KOs). Cuba’s Cruz, who won the lightweight gold medal at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, was fast-tracked to a title shot and gave Muratalla trouble at times while fighting off his back foot.

Hearn still suspects Cruz could be better served by moving down from lightweight to the junior lightweight limit of 130 pounds because he doesn’t have much difficulty making 135.

Cruz agreed that throwing more punches might’ve helped his cause, yet he believes he won a main event DAZN streamed worldwide.

“I always feel like I could do a bit more,” Cruz told DAZN’s Chris Mannix in the ring. “But tonight, to be totally honest, I believe I did do enough and deserved the victory.”

CompuBox credited Cruz for landing one more punch overall (176 of 537 to 175 of 611). According to its unofficial tally, Muratalla connected with 13 more power punches (112 of 296 to 99 of 251). and Cruz landed 14 more jabs (77 of 286 to 63 of 215).

“I always said it wasn’t going to be an easy fight,” Cruz said. “I said there was a reason why he was a world champion. He beat me and I’ve really not got much more to say.”