What’s Going On With WBO & Its Referees? Plus Other Chatter

Referees were a major topic for the past few weeks with one in particular serving as the focal point after a featherweight world championship.

Roberto Ramirez Sr. was the object of controversy after refereeing the WBO featherweight battle between Orlando Salido and Juan Manuel Lopez on March 10 in Puerto Rico.

Lopez made comments about referee Ramirez’s decision to stop the fight and the WBO organization made an inquiry. Most attacked Lopez for the comments.

Last week, Ramirez was the referee for a female world title fight between WBO junior featherweight titleholder Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton and challenger Yesica Marcos of Argentina. The fight was held on March 16 in Argentina and for some reason it never went to purse bid. The WBO allegedly forced Julaton to fight in South America. Why?

It’s just an observation but referee Ramirez allowed Marcos to walk into the ring with a protective belt that looked as if it was two-inches thick in padding and covered almost her entire abdomen. About one-inch in stomach flesh was visible. Julaton had a protective belt too but it didn’t cover anything above her belly button as mandated by most legitimate boxing organizations. So why was Marcos allowed to fight with that contraption wrapped around her?

During the fight, any time Julaton hit Marcos to the body a cry of foul came from the Argentine fighter’s corner. The referee would turn and acknowledge their cries and warn Julaton for hitting below the belt. That’s where the problem was. The belt covered Marcos’ entire abdomen. That was illegal and should not have been allowed. Ramirez is at clearly at fault in my opinion. He should have allowed Julaton to hit her on that protective belt that was pulled up too high, but did not.

Marcos won the fight by decision and fought well. But basically Julaton was handicapped by not being able to attack Marcos body. Every time she did she was given a warning and in one instance the referee Ramirez deducted a point from Julaton. It was definitely, in my opinion, hometown cooking. Maybe Ramirez was intimidated by the large Argentine crowd?

It also was poor refereeing from the start.

Anytime a referee gives an advantage to a fighter he’s doing a bad job.

Other Boxing Chatter

WBC junior welterweight titleholder Erik “El Terrible” Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) was to make his first title defense against undefeated Danny “Swift” Garcia (22-0, 14 KOs) of Philadelphia on Saturday, but came in over weight. The Golden Boy Promotions event takes place in Houston, Texas at the Reliant Arena. Also on the card will be James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KOs) fighting Carlos Molina (19-4-2) in a junior middleweight bout.

Jelena Mrdjenovich (26-8-1, 13 KOs) fights Lindsay Garbatt (7-4-1) in a lightweight match featuring two of Canada’s better female prizefighters. Mrdjenovich will be defending the WIBA featherweight title on Friday March 23, in Edmonton. This will be their third encounter. Garbatt won the previous two conflicts.

Lightweight Gavin Rees (35-1-1, 16 KOs) travels to France to defend the EBU title against Anthony Mezaache (21-6-3, 6 KOs) in a 12 round contest. The European title fight will be held on Friday March 23.

Roberto “Amenaza” Garcia (30-3, 20 KOs) returns to his Southern Texas roots to fight Antwone Smith (21-3-1, 12 KOs) in a junior middleweight bout set for 10 rounds. Garcia trains at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif. The match will be held in Pharr, Texas.

Las Vegas prizefighter Diego Magdaleno (21-0, 7 KOs) fights Mexico’s Miguel Beltran Jr. (26-1, 17 KOs) on Friday in Tucson, Arizona. Also on the Top Rank card will be undefeated heavyweight Andy Ruiz (13-0, 8 KOs) fighting Homero Fonseca (9-4-3).

IBF featherweight titleholder Dahiana Santana (28-6, 12 KOs) fights Stacey Reile (10-4, 4 KOs) on Saturday March 24 in Santiago, Dominican Republic. It’s their third encounter with each having a win. Also on the same card IBF junior featherweight titleholder Ada Velez (20-3-3) fights Dominican female prizefighter Katy Castillo.

Germany’s Elina “The Machine” Tissen (13-2) has a 10-round clash with Doris Koehler (8-9-1) for the WIBF and GBU featherweight titles. The world title match takes place Munster, Germany on Saturday March 24. It’s Tissen’s third title defense. Koehler fights out of Austria.

Mexico’s Hernan Marquez (32-2, 25 KOs) defends the WBA flyweight title against Philippine’s Rodel Mayol 30-5-2, 22 KOs) on Saturday. Marquez, 23, fights out of Sonora, Mexico and is making his third defense. Rayol is a former world champion. The match will be held in Ciudad Obregon. Or will it? Marquez didn’t make weight so the fight is up in the air.

AJ “Bazooka” Banal (26-1-1, 19 KOs) has a 12 round clash with Raul Hidalgo (16-5, 12 KOs) on Saturday March 24. Banal will be defending the WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight title in Cebu City, Philippines.

South Africa’s Takalani Ndlovu (33-6, 18 KOs) defends the IBF junior featherweight title against Jeffrey Mathebula (25-3-2, 14 KOs) on Saturday March 24. Carnival City, South Africa will be the site.

Former junior welterweight and welterweight world champion Zab Judah (41-7, 28 KOs) fights undefeated Vernon Paris (26-0, 15 KOs) in a 12 round junior welterweight clash on Saturday March 24. Also on the same card Tomasz Adamek (44-2, 28 KOs) fights Nagy Aguilera (17-6, 12 KOs) in a heavyweight contest at the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn.

Giacobbe Fragomeni (29-3-2, 12 KOs) and former champion Silvio Branco (62-10-3, 37 KOs) fought to a draw after 12 rounds for the WBC cruiserweight number one ranking. The match was held on Saturday March 17 in Pavia, Italy

WBC junior featherweight titleholder Alicia Ashley (18-9-1) beat Mexico’s Maria Villalobos (12-6-1) by unanimous decision in a title defense. The confrontation took place on Saturday March 17 in Mexico City.

WBC lightweight titleholder Antonio DeMarcos (27-2-1, 20 KOs) knocked out Miguel Roman (37-10, 28 KOs) at the end of round five. DeMarcos won the title by knockout over Venezuela’s Jorge Linares last Summer. The match took place in Los Mochis, Mexico.

Former Riverside resident Omar Chavez (28-1-1, 21 KOs) stopped Emilio Julio (20-8-2, 13 KOs) at the end of round 10. Chavez is the younger brother of middleweight titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Vitaliy Kopylenko (17-0, 8 KOs) remained undefeated by knocking out Vasyl Tarabarov (22-1-1, 8 KOs) at the end of round four in Kiev, Ukraine. Kopylenko wins the WBF Intercontinental title on Saturday March 17.

World title contender Matthew Hatton (42-6-2, 16 KOs) lost to undefeated Kell Brook (29-0, 16 KOs) in a welterweight match after 12 rounds. Their collision took place in Sheffield, England on Saturday March 17.

Super middleweights Farah Ennis (19-1, 12 KOs) beat Dion Savage (11-3, 6 KOs) after 10 rounds on Saturday March 17. Their bout took place at Bally’s Park Place Hotel Casino in Atlantic City.

Norwalk’s Carlos Molina (16-0-1, 7 KOs) remained undefeated with a unanimous decision win over Angino Perez (11-4, 9 KOs). Their junior welterweight match was held on Saturday in Pharr, Texas.

Yesica Marcos (19-0-1, 6 KOs) won a 10-round decision over WBO junior featherweight titleholder Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton (10-3-1) on Friday March 16. Their title bout was held in Mendoza, Argentina. Marcos is from Argentina.

Mexico’s Omar Salado (23-5-2, 14 KOs) was upset by Northern California’s Glenn Donaire (19-4-1, 10 KOs) for a vacant junior bantamweight title in Mexico City. The match took place Friday March 16. Donaire is the older brother of junior featherweight world champion Nonito Donaire.

Former junior welterweight titleholder Kendall Holt (28-5, 16 KOs) knocked out Tim Coleman (19-3-1, 5 KOs) at 2:23 of round two. Their welterweight match was held at Morongo Casino on Friday March 16. La Puente’s Abraham Lopez (17-0, 12 KOs) remained unbeaten with a victory over Gabriel Tolmajyan (12-2-1).

Jose Zepeda (9-0, 7 KOs) knocked out Sergio De La Torre (11-16-3) at 1:34 of round two of a welterweight fight in Montebello, Calif. Also, lightweight Irving Garcia (6-1, 4 KOs) stopped Jalani Wilson (0-1-1) at 2:21 of round three.

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