By Erik Schmidt: In a shocking upset, interim WBO cruiserweight champion Alexander Alekseev (16-1, 15 KOs) was stopped in the 10th round by Argentinian Victor Emilio Ramirez (14-1, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. An exhausted Alekseev, 27, was hurt by a series of right hands in the last minute of the 9th round and took punishment along the ropes for the remainder of the round. In between rounds, Alekseev’s corner had the fight stopped to prevent him from getting hit any further.
The fight was very strange, reminding me of a carbon copy of Wladimir Klitschko’s 11th round stoppage loss to Ross Puritty in 1998, in that Alekseev had been giving Ramirez a one-sided beating for most of the fight until the 9th, when Alekseev, now red-faced and gassed out, crumbled suddenly and fell apart as Ramirez began hitting him with power shots while Alekseev was on the ropes.
Ramirez, like Puritty, rarely threw punches in the fight and mostly ate jabs and power shots for the first nine rounds. Indeed, Ramirez, ranked #9 in the WBO, looked terrible, nothing like a ranked fighter in any division. He landed some decent shots in the 5th round, but aside from that, he was slow and unable to pull the trigger in the other rounds.
In fact, he made Puritty look good in comparison, because at least Puritty would throw a powerful jab and right hand on occasions, but Ramirez was little more than a punching bag for Alekseev until the 9th. In the end, Ramirez seemed to win the fight more because of the fact that he hung around long enough for Alekseev to tire out and beat up on him when he had nothing left rather than the fact that he fought well and looked good.
It seemed as if Alekseev was beaten more by his poor stamina rather than Ramirez. Up until this fight, the longest fight that Alekseev had fought was six-round decision over Luis Oscar Ricail two years ago. All the other fights by Alekseev have resulted in mostly early knockouts in the 1st to 5th rounds, and although it was clearly good for Alekseev’s record to score all these early knockouts, it left him ill-prepared for a fight beyond the 6th.
On Saturday night, Alekseev’s face and upper body began to look a beet red by the 6th round, as he looked badly fatigued, despite the fact that Ramirez was throwing nothing back at him and just taking shots. At the end of the 6th, Alekseev looked like he had nothing left and needed a lot of encouragement in between rounds by his trainer Fritz Sdunek.
Alekseev looked great in rounds one through three, landing well with jabs and straight lefts to the head. Alekseev was hammering Ramirez nearly at will with hooks, uppercuts and body shots and making it look really easy. Ramirez, for his part, only landed a handful of punches in the first three rounds and looked little better than a club fighter.
He did show a good chin, which is perhaps the only good thing I noticed about him during these rounds. His hand speed was terrible, his movement poor, his reach limited due to his short 5’10” height and his work rate was abysmal.
In the 4th round, Alekseev already began to be showing signs of tiring out, as his upper body and face began to suddenly change colors, turning red as if he had sprinted around the block. Still, the round was all Alekseev as he used Ramirez’s face as target practice for jabs and straight left hands and pounded away at his midsection with hooks.
In the 6th round, Ramirez seemed to hurt Alekseev with a hard combination to the head early in the round. Alekseev then covered up as Ramirez unloaded on his with a brief flurry of shots. However, Alekseev quickly took the attack to Ramirez and took charge of the round, punishing Ramirez and shutting him down for the remainder of the round.
The 7th round was an easy round for Alekseev, as he fought smoothly, hitting Ramirez with jabs, left hooks and straight lefts to the head. Ramirez didn’t even try to restart his offense, perhaps because he wasn’t given an opportunity due to the constant incoming fire from Alekseev.
In the 8th round, Alekseev dominated the round for the first two minutes, but then Ramirez came on in the last minute and landed a couple good right hands. It wasn’t nearly enough for the Argentinian to win the round, but it showed that he was capable of fighting hard suddenly when he wanted.
As the 9th round started, Alekseev looked completely exhausted as he went out for the start of the round. He began circling the ring, jabbing Ramirez and hitting him with lefts. However, Ramirez went after Alekseev, hitting him hard to the body with right hands and nailing him with lefts to the head.
Shortly after that, Alekseev got caught in the corner and was hit with a series of hard shots from Ramirez. Alekseev fought back bravely, hitting Ramirez with a left to the head. However, Ramirez was smelling blood, and continued hitting Alekseev to the head and backing him up.
Alekseev was fighting back but he looked like a wet noodle, now totally tired with nothing left in the tank. Ramirez followed after him and caught him in the center of the ring and hit Alekseev with some hard shots that snapped his head around.
After the round ended, Alekseev walked back to his corner and wearily sat down. His trainer Fritz Sdunek then almost immediately signaled to the referee that he wanted the fight to be stopped. It seemed like a hasty move on Sdunek’s part, because Alekseev should have been able to have been given a chance to go out for the 10th. If he had stuck to his jab instead of wasting energy on power shots, Alekseev would have had an excellent chance at beating Ramirez, because the Argentinean’s mobility was poor.