The Taylor-Ramirez Fight Revisited

Scotland’s Josh Taylor crossed the Atlantic Ocean to America and showed he just may be his country’s greatest fighter in history by knocking down Jose Carlos Ramirez twice and winning by unanimous decision to become his country’s first undisputed world champion on Saturday.

“I’m so, so happy. I’m over the moon man,” said Taylor.

Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) won the undisputed super lightweight world champion with a victory over California’s Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs) at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas. A half-full crowd witnessed the Scottish fighter win all four major titles and become only the sixth male fighter to win undisputed status.

The battle for undisputed super lightweight status began more than two years ago when Taylor defeated Regis Prograis for the IBF and WBA titles while Ramirez beat Maurice Hooker for the WBC and WBO titles. They finally met at Las Vegas to see who would join the undisputed ranks along with Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk and Teofimo Lopez who also accomplished the feat.

Taylor implemented psychological warfare days before the fight by shoving Ramirez and it paid off.

“It was just to get into his head,” Taylor explained. We were going to use his aggression against him. There was no disrespect.”

An aggressive Ramirez attacked the body and head with his combination punching to the head and body while Taylor used jabs and counter uppercuts. It was a tactic used by both to success at different parts of the fight.

Behind sharp jabs Ramirez seemed to gain the momentum during the first five rounds. But it was obvious that Taylor was waiting to counter with straight lefts and uppercuts.

As Ramirez charged in with combinations to the head and body in the sixth round, Taylor patiently waited for the perfect moment and fired a counter left to the chin. Down went Ramirez for the count of eight. He got up groggily but finished the round strong.

Anxious to make up for his knockdown, Ramirez charged forward again in the seventh round and Taylor held and clinched to nullify the tactic. Referee Kenny Bayless had pulled them apart several times earlier and must have said something that made Ramirez pull out with his hands down. Taylor took advantage and fired a short uppercut and down went Ramirez again.

Always protect yourself.

“It’s unfortunate that I wasn’t aware or didn’t learn during the clinches and he took advantage of some of those clinches,” said Ramirez.

After two knockdowns Ramirez was in trouble and Taylor was in control. Though Ramirez won four of the next five rounds he was too far behind to catch up without a knockdown or two of his own.

Ramirez just could not corner Taylor.

The Scottish fighter took some heavy blows from the Mexican-American fighter but showed why no fighter had ever been able to put him on the canvas. It was only the body shots that seemed to affect him.

Though Ramirez was winning the latter rounds by firing more punches, it just wasn’t enough. After 12 rounds all three judges scored the same 114-112 for Taylor. So did TheSweetscience.com.

“I felt it was a great performance. I gave him a little bit too much,” said Taylor. “I thought the scorecards were a little bit tight. Two knockdowns and I won most of the rounds.”

Still, Taylor joins Ken Buchanan as the one other Scot who was undisputed world champion when there were only two titles.

“There is a new warrior king and he’s from bonnie Scotland,” said Taylor. “Anyone who wants to fight let’s go.”

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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