Despite a Lackluster Effort, Jose Carlos Ramirez Retains His Title Belts

Despite a flat performance Northern California’s Jose Carlos Ramirez retained the WBC and WBO super lightweight world titles by majority decision against Ukraine’s Viktor Postol on Saturday in Las Vegas.

It sets up a possible rare unification bout with Scotland’s Josh Taylor to unify all the super lightweight titles. Taylor currently holds the WBA and IBF versions.

Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) had a spotty performance against former champion Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) whose lengthy jabs and penchant for holding tied up the champion at the MGM Grand Bubble. Neither fighter was able to gain any serious momentum.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a boxing ring,” said Ramirez.

Although Ramirez started quickly at the first round, Postol used his jab to get back in the fight. It was proved to be the common theme for the night for the two super lightweights.

Just when it looked like Postol might turn things around after six rounds, Ramirez connected with a short left to the chin that staggered the Ukrainian challenger. That one punch swung the fight in the champion’s favor.

Still, Postol hung around and pestered Ramirez with those jabs and right crosses down the middle.

Ramirez had his best moments when he targeted the body, but could not keep the pressure on Postol who seldom allowed the fighting to be fought inside.

After 12 rounds one judge scored it 114-114, while two others had it 115-113, 116-111 for Ramirez who keeps his titles.

“I fought like I was in a sparring session,” said Ramirez, adding it may be the lack of fans that caused the lackluster effort. “I was kind of burned out.”

“I feel I can show more,” he said.

Barboza

In another super lightweight fight Arnold Barboza Jr. (24-0, 10 KOs) of Los Angeles handily defeated Canada’s Tony Luis (29-4, 10 KOs) by unanimous decision after 10 rounds. All three judges scored it 99-90 for Barboza.

Barboza was the much busier and accurate puncher but never could seriously hurt Luis.

“He was a tough guy,” said Barboza who suffered a point deduction for a low blow. “I feel I’m ready for the next step.”

Other Bouts

Welterweight prospect Elvis Rodriguez (9-0-1, 9 KOs) proved too much for Cody Wilson (9-3, 7 KOs) and dropped him twice before the fight ended at 1:03 of the third round.

Fontana, California’s brother combination saw each suffer knockdowns before rallying to win. Raymond Muratalla (10-0, 8 KOs) knocked down Cesar Valenzuela (15-7-1, 5 KOs) in the first round then got caught with a left hook and went down in the second. The 23-year-old Muratalla settled down and used effective counter rights to turn the tide and forced referee Mike Perez to stop the fight at 2:24 of the seventh round and win by knockout.

Older brother Gabriel Muratalla survived a first round knockdown by Brooklyn’s Justice Bland and rallied to win by unanimous decision after four rounds in a bantamweight fight. It didn’t look good for the Fontana fighter when he was dropped by the much taller Bland, but a subsequent illegal blow resulted in a point deduction and also gave Muratalla more time to recover from the knockdown. From there on, the smaller Muratalla used better defense and a varied attack to win every round on the three judge’s score cards 38-36.

Middleweight Javier Martinez (2-0) out-hustled Louisiana’s Rance Ward (4-2-1) to win by unanimous decision after six rounds. No knockdowns were scored in the fight. Martinez won by scores 60-54 on all three cards. Martinez resides in Milwaukee.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams for Top Rank

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