By Jim Dower: After a poor 2008 in which he lost twice, lightweight contender Michael Katsidis (24-2, 20 KOs) got back in the winning ways on Saturday night, defeating Spaniard Angel Hugo Ramirez (19-5-2, 8 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision at the Cebu Coliseum, in Cebu City, Philippines. The final judges’ scores were 98-87, 96-89 and 96-89.

Katsidis, 28, knocked Ramirez down four times in the first four rounds, knocking him down once in the 2nd and three times in the 4th. But following the 4th, Katsidis lost a little power off his shots and was unable to get Ramirez out of there.

Katsidis was deducted a point for hitting Ramirez while he was down in the 2nd round. Even with all the knockdowns, Katsidis was hardly impressive, as he was hit hard on several occasions in the fight and stunned by the light-hitting Ramirez’s shots.

Katsidis, ranked #6 in the World Boxing Organization and #11 in the IBF, had Ramirez on the run from rounds one through four. Ramirez looked to be thinking exclusively of survival as he rarely stopped to throw any punches at Katsidis during this time. Early in the 2nd round, Katsidis caught up with Ramirez and nailed him with three consecutive right hands to put him down on the canvas.

Ramirez made it easy by staying on the ropes and was unable to get out of the way of Katsidis’ big power shots. A short time later, Ramirez fell to the canvas after getting hit with two monstrous right hands from Katsidis. However, the referee ruled it a slip. While Ramirez was down on his knees, Katsidis landed a short right hand to the head of Ramirez. Referee Bruce McTavish then stopped the action and took a point away from Katsidis.

In the 3rd round, Katsidis landed some nice right hands to the head of Ramirez. However, Katsidis was unable to put him down due to the constant movement from Ramirez, who moved throughout the round along the ropes, changing directions often.

In the 4th, Katsidis connected with a short left-right combination to put Ramirez down. Ramirez got up and seconds later was put down again, this time by a left to the midsection while Ramirez was up against the ropes. Later in the round, Katsidis put Ramirez down for the third time in the round after landing a nice left to the head.

In the 5th round, Katsidis focused on attacking Ramirez’s body, and landed a ton of hard body shots in the round. Ramirez took the shots, but he was unable to move as much from this point on and was dramatically slowed from the punishing shots.

Katsidis stalked Ramirez round the ring in the 6th, landing some good shots but not throwing as many punches as he had in the earlier rounds. In the last minute of the round, Katsidis posed a lot in front of Ramirez, looking as if he was trying to rest. Ramirez took advantage of Katsidis’ drop off in punch output to land some nice shots of his own, hitting Katsidis with a flurry of shots early in the round.

Katsidis tried a role reversal in the 7th, hanging on the ropes and allowing Ramirez to get his shots off. Ramirez didn’t do much to take advantage of it though, allowing Katsidis to pound him even when he was backed against the ropes. By this time, Ramirez’s back was beginning to look raw and reddened, burned in numerous places from his constant sliding along the ropes.

In the 8th, Katsidis was cut over his right eye, no doubt due to his massive amount of scar tissue around that area. The cut didn’t slow down Katsidis, who kept pouring in right hands to the head of Ramirez.
Ramirez landed well in the 9th round, hitting Katsidis with some big shots, snapping his head in the process. It was lucky for Katsidis that Ramirez had no power, because he took the shots cleanly and didn’t look good in the way that his head was snapped around by the punches.

In the 10th, Katsidis did little, moving around and stalking without punching. The crowd booed but Katsidis did little to try to make it interesting, appearing content to win the fight by a decision.