Jose Ramirez Doesn’t Let the Beast All the Way Out, But Outpoints Jose Pedraza

Losing for the first time in his professional career, in a junior welterweight unification showdown with Scotland’s Josh Taylor on May 22 of last year, a bout in which he was knocked down twice and handed over his WBC and WBO 140-pound titles to a guy who already held the WBA and IBF belts, had a sobering effect on Jose Ramirez. For the first time, Ramirez felt the cold fingers of doubt intrude upon his mental state. Not good; a healthy self-confidence is one commodity no fighter can afford to have in short supply.

So what could Ramirez do once he found himself in a situation like that? Well, he could have played it safe, taking a tune-up fight or two against relatively non-threatening opponents. Or he could charge headlong into the kind of tough test that would reveal to him how far he needed to go to get back to the lofty perch he only recently had been obliged to vacate. And while two-division former world champ Jose “Sniper” Pedraza might not have been all that he once had been, he hardly represented a mere tune-up or a glorified sparring session.

Ramirez’s veteran trainer, Robert Garcia, had suggested that his more focused and possibly nastier fighter would “let the beast out,” but that was a bit of hyperbole or at least wishful thinking on his part. Ramirez might be of Mexican descent, a lineage suggesting a fondness for blood-and-guts brawls, but the Fresno, Calif., resident was and remains too much a technician to go into any bout intent on performing with reckless abandon. And so it was against Pedraza, whom he outpointed over 12 rounds Friday night (and into Saturday morning, for those watching the ESPN+ telecast on the East Coast) by 116-112 scores in triplicate.

“I was a little tense coming into this fight because, obviously of my last fight,” Ramirez said of the ghosts of his comeuppance against Taylor that still haunt him to some extent. “I got a little more tense than I thought I was going to be. But I just went out there and boxed and had fun. I played it smart and did my job.”

Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) built a lead through the early rounds, but Pedraza (29-4, 14 KOs) found a rhythm in the sixth through eight rounds and appeared on the verge of taking control of the main event in the Save Mart Center in Ramirez’s hometown of Fresno. But Ramirez pulled himself together to weather the mini-storm, giving the live audience that lustily supported him plenty to cheer about.

“These are my people,” Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) said. “They motivate me.” He explained his four-round close-out rally by noting, “I tried to push it a little more and let (Pedraza) know I still had an extra gear.”

With Josh Taylor, who is coming off a controversial split decision over Jack Catterall, apparently poised to relinquish all four of his junior welter straps to move up to 147, the field would seem to be wide open now for Ramirez to try to reclaim one or more of the championships that figure to be up for grabs in the near future.

“Against anybody at 140,” Ramirez told interviewer Bernardo Osuna when asked who he might like to fight next with a bejeweled belt on the line. “I’m going to go back (to the gym) and work and stay focused and active. There’s a lot of great fighters at 140 right now. There’s a lot of fights out there that will bring out the best in me.”

Eventually, though, Ramirez said he wants a do-over with Taylor, even if he has to move up to welter or possibly beyond that make it happen. “I want to fight Taylor once more before I retire,” he stressed.

In a bit of an oddity, the lead-in to the marquee attraction featured a debuting pro. But maybe it wasn’t such an oddity; that fighter is another resident of central California, Richard Torrez Jr. of Tulare, Calif., a silver medalist for the U.S. at the 2020 Summer Olympics. As expected, Torrez blasted out Allen Melson (6-4, 3 KOs) of Gadsden, Ala., in two rounds, but he was bloodied in the process by a head-butt that left him with a nasty gash on his forehead.

Other televised bouts included:

*Lightweights Hector Tanajara (19-1-1, 5 KOs), of San Antonio, Texas, and Miguel Contreras (11-1-1, 6 KOs), of Bakersfield, Calif., battled to an entertaining eight-round split draw that featured lots of two-way action.

*Gabriel Flores Jr. (21-1, 7 KOs), of Stockton, Calif., registered a 10-round majority decision over Abraham Montoya (20-3-1, 14 KOs), of Mexico, in a 10-round junior lightweight scrap.

*Lightweight Karlos Balderas (12-1, 11 KOs), of Santa Maria, Calif., a 2016 U.S. Olympian, benefiting from having former world champ Buddy McGirt as his trainer, stopped Aelio Mesquita (20-7-1, 18 KOs) in the second round of a scheduled six-rounder.

*Despite being floored for his first time as a pro, Javier Martinez (6-0, 2 KOs), of Milwaukee, scored a six-round unanimous decision over Donte Stubbs (6-4, 2 KOs), of Riverside, Calif.

*Lightweight Charlie Sheehy (2-0, 1 KO), of Brisbane, Calif., needed only one round to get Johnny Bernal (2-1, 2 KOs) of Denver out of there.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank via Getty Images