By Dan Ambrose: In a disappointing performance from Top Rank fighter light welterweight Jose Carlos Ramirez (17-0, 12 KOs), he was forced to go all out to struggle to defeat 31-year-old journeyman Manuel Perez (25-12-1, 6 KOs) in beating him by an unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision on HBO PPV from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The final judges’ scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 99-91. Perez had a cut inside his mouth from the early rounds. His right ear also swelled up and stuck outwards by the end of the fight. Ramirez ended up with a badly swollen face. It wasn’t a pretty picture for someone who was supposed to be fighting in a showcase fight.
Ramirez, a 2012 U.S Olympian that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is very high on, was barely better than lightweight Perez. It was a fight where many of the rounds were very close, as Perez was able to nail the very hittable Ramirez with body shots in each round. The fight was closer than the scores would have you believe. Perez was really pounding Ramirez with hard body shots. It was fortunate for Ramirez that Perez isn’t a huge puncher because if he was, he would have lost the fight.
What we learned tonight is Ramirez doesn’t have the talent to beat guys like Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol. It’s possible that Ramirez could pick up one of the vacant belts at 140 and become a paper champion, but not the number one or number two guy at 140.
Arum might want to see if Ramirez can melt down to lightweight, because I think that might be a better division for him. He lacks the power and the defense to be a major player at light welterweight.
If you’re number three at 140, you’re nothing. To be a highly popular fighter, you need to be the number one guy in your weight class, and Ramirez definitely isn’t going to be that kind of fighter. Ramirez’s face was badly swollen tonight, as was Perez. You expect Perez to have a swollen face because he’s a journeyman. You don’t expect a blue chip former Olympian to be looking like Ramirez looked tonight.
In other boxing action on the card, 2012 Olympian light heavyweight bronze medalist Oleksandr Gvozdyk (9-0, 7 KOs) defeated recent world title challenger Nadjib Mohammedi (39-5, 24 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout. Mohammedi was recently stopped in the 3rd round by IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. As good as Gvozdyk’s win was, he’s clearly not in the same league as Kovalev. It would be bad if he were thrown in there with him because it wouldn’t be a fair fight at this point.
Undefeated welterweight contender Konstantin Ponomarev (30-0, 13 KOs) defeated Brandon Solomon (26-1, 9 KOs) by a 10 round split decision in a fight a lot closer than expected. The final judges scores were 98-92, 96-94 for Ponomarev, and 96-94 for Solomon.
Other boxing results from the card:
Egidijus Kavaliauskas UD 8 Deniz
Leon Bauer UD 6 Ilshat Khusnulgatin
Devin Haney UD 4 Rafael Vazquez
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